

















V 










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THE COURT OF HONOR 










THE 


NEW JERUSALEM 


The World’s Religious Congresses 


of 1893. 



Edited by Rev. L. P. Mercer. 


CHICAGO: 

Western New-Church Union, 



'i 



COPYRIGHT BY 

L. P. MERCER 
1894 





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•) •>> 

• t) » 
•) 





AFTERWARD 


To F. S. 

These things are yours and mine forever more: — 
The broad, white vision on the western plain, 
(How doth it like a midday moon remain) 

Of twined fruit and wings; of things that soar; 

Of lifted trumpets ’mid the lions’ roar; 

Of sinless colonades without a stain 
Of anarchy, or war, or tears, or pain, 

Where Beauty lies in sunshine at the door; 

Of those who walked therein and were our friends, 
Turbaned in love and clad in suns and moons, 
Symbols of things too mighty to reveal. 

And we two on the curved bridge lean and feel 
The warm, still charm of lantern-lit lagoons 
These things are yours and mine until life ends. 


■Alice Archer Sewall. 



CONTENTS 


Introduction 

page 

The Columbian Exposition, ix 

BOOK I 

The Parliament of Religion 

CHAPTER 

I. The Genesis of the Religious Congresses of 1893, by 
C. C. Bonney, President of the World’s Congress 

Auxiliary, 3 

II. A Narrative and Critical Account of the Parliament 

of Religions, by the Rev. Frank Sewall, ... 29 

III. Papers Presented by New-Churchmen in the Parlia- 
ment, 71 

1. The Soul and its Future Life, by Rev. S. M. 

Warren, 74 

2. The Divine Basis of Co-operation between Men 

and Women, by Lydia. Fuller Dickinson, 82 

3. The Character and Degree of the Inspiration 

of the Christian Scriptures, by the Rev. 
Frank Sewall, 90 

4. The Incarnation of God in Christ, by Rev. 

Julian K. Smyth, 99 

5. Reconciliation Vital, not Vicarious, by Rev. 

T. F. Wright, Ph. D., 110 

6. Swedenborg and the Harmony of Religions, 

by Rev. L. P. Mercer, 115 

BOOK II 

The New- Jerusalem Church Congress 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Preparation and Presentation, 127 

1. Address of Welcome, by C. C. Bonney, . . 130 

2. Welcome and Declaration, by Rev. L.P. Mercer, 133 

3. Address of Welcome from Miss A. E. Scammon, 137 


V 


VI 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

II. The Origin and Nature of the New Church. 

1. One Lord, One Church, with its Successive 

Ages, by the Rev. Frank Sewall, . . . 141 

2. The Church before Christianity, by the Rev. 

G. N. Smith, 150 

3. The Church of the First Advent, by the Rev. 

James Reed, 160 

4. The Church of the Second Advent, by the Rev. 

Louis H. Tafel, 167 

5. The Catholic Spirit of the New Church, by 

Rev. Thomas A. King, 173 


III. Its Doctrines the True Basis of a Universal Faith and 
Charity. 

1. The Doctrines of the Lord, by Rev. John 


Goddard, 181 

2. The Doctrine of Redemption, by Rev. John 

Presland, London, 190 

3. The Doctrine of Salvation, by Rev. S. S. 

Seward, 198 

4. Doctrine of the Future Life, by Rev. Howard 

C. Dunham, 205 

5. The Science of Correspondence and the Word 

of God, by Rev. John Worcester, . . . 215 

6. The Internal Word in its Relation to the 

Religions of the World, by Rev. Adolph 
Roeder, 226 

IV. The Planting of the New Church. 


1. Swedenborg’s Writings and His Disposition 
of Them, by Rev. C. J. N. Manby, Gotten- 


burg, 241 

2. The Planting of the New Church in England, 

by James Speirs, London, 256 

3. The New Church on the Continent of Europe, 

by Rev. Fedor Gorwitz, Switzerland, . . 267 

4. The New Church in America, by the Rev. W. 

H. Hinkley, 278 

5. The New Church in Australia, by the Rev. J. 

J. Thornton, 285 

6. The Planting of the New Church in Africa, by 

the Rev. E. D. Daniels, 295 


CONTENTS \ii 

CHAPTER PAGE 

7. The Silent Missionaries, by the Rev. G. 

Laurence Allbutt, 301 

Y. The Future of the New Church. 

1. The Mission of the New Church to the Gentiles, 

by Rev. Albinus F. Frost, 307 

2. The Duty of the New Church to the African 

Race, by Ellen Spencer Mussey, . . . 313 

3. Mission of the New Church to the Christian 

Denominations, by Rev. Julian K. Smyth, 317 

4. The Mission of the New Church to Biblical 

Criticism, by Rev. John C. Ager, . . . 331 

5. The Mission of the New Church to Philosophy, 

by Rev. S. C. Eby, 340 

6. The Mission of the New Church to the Histo- 

rian, by the Rev. Philip B. Cabell, . . 350 

7. The Mission of the New Church to Literature, 

by Rev. T. F. Wright, Ph. D., . 360 

8. The Mission of the New Church to Art, by 

Signor Loreto Scocia, 371 

9. The Mission of the New Church to Sociology 

and Government, by Rev. C. H. Mann, . 385 

VI. Woman in the New Church. 

1. The True Relation of Woman’s Work to 

Man’s, by Mrs. J. R. Hibbard, 393 

2. Woman in the Christian World, by Miss Carrie 

E. Rowe, London, 403 

3. Woman in the New Church, by Miss Mary L. 

Barton, 408 

4. Woman as Wife and Mother, by Mrs. S. S. 

Seward, 416 

5. Education for Wife and Mother, by Mrs. J. R. 

Putnam, 423 

6. The Position and Influence of Woman in the 

Religious World, by Mrs. T. F. Houts, . 429 

7. The Womanly Nature, by Miss Selma Ware 

Paine, 438 

8. The Ministry of Gentleness, by Miss Ednah 

C. Silver, 445 

9. The Feminine in the Church, by Miss Mary 

A. Lathbury, 451 





1 






















































INTRODUCTION 


The Columbian Exposition was itself a manifestation of 
the New Age. Divine purposes work long unseen, and divine 
principles are embodied often long before their source and 
portent are acknowledged. 

It is explained in this volume that by the New Jerusalem is 
meant a new dispensation of the Church and of Religion, which 
shall be truly Christian; in which it shall be allowable to enter 
intellectually into the things of faith, and be possible to 
develop a fuller spiritual and rational life; that this dispensa- 
tion of the Church is inaugurated by new revelation from the 
Lord opening the spiritual sense and divine meaning of the 
Sacred Scriptures; and that it was preceded by a last judgment 
in the world of spirits from which results a new freedom of 
willing and thinking among men; and that in it is to be ful- 
filled the divine promise, “Behold, I make all things new.” This 
new dispensation is the re-establishment and crowning of the 
Christian Church in that fullness of revelation foretold by all the 
prophets and promised by the Lord. 

But before truth, rational and luminous, attesting its Divine 
origin and power, could descend from heaven to set up the 
tabernacle of God with men, order and obedience had to be 
founded, rationality established and freedom constituted. In 
the 144,000 and in the great multitude picked out of every nation 
and kindred and tongue, John saw the first fruits of the Lord’s 
redemption; but for the establishment of the self-perpetuating 
kingdom of Divine truth upon earth, the nations of the earth 
had to be educated. 

It has been a principle of Divine Providence from of old to 
break the lust of universal dominion by rivalry of selfishness. 
The evils of personal dominion are mitigated by the struggles of 
persons for mastery. We may see thus the hand of God in the 
overthrow of the Roman empire and the rise of feudalism. It 
brought the hand of authority nearer to the people and trained 
them in obedience and self-interest. The Church entered into 
the struggle with its witness to divine authority and opened to 
the masses the thought of the King of Kings. It demanded 
obedienpe from the lords of the obedient, and lent its authority 

is 


X 


INTRODUCTION 


to whomsoever would serve it. A larger order succeeded. The 
king subdued the lords, and monarchy succeeded feudalism. It 
founded and endowed universities and encouraged commerce. 
It conceded no political privileges to the people, but prepared 
its subjects to demand them. 

Then came the revival of learning. No further step towards 
the manhood of men could be taken without the enfranchise- 
ment of the intellect. The longing of the universities and of 
the learned for the treasures of ancient wisdom, “hidden and 
yet insecure in monastic cells and libraries,” drew down those 
currents of inspiration that waited to direct the invention of the 
printing press. With its advent was shown the Divine hand 
which had been over-ruling in the civil and social revolutions of 
Europe. “Its first service was to the people; its first fruits the 
printed Bible.” The story of the revival of learning we need 
not repeat. It constituted the second step in the preparation of 
mankind for manhood; first, social order and obedience; second, 
the enfranchisement of the intellect. But until this last shall 
become common, and the masses of men rational in their power 
to think for themselves and with each other, there can be no 
self-government. Nor was this possible under the despotio hand 
of custom and privilege entrenched in the monarchies of 
Europe. Humanity must burst forth at the sides into a new and 
boundless theater of ambition and enterprise in order to learn 
its powers of thinking and its capacities for individual charac- 
ter and self-control. Columbus was in training and America 
was found. How that event opened a new theater for the experi- 
ment of civil and religious liberty, and changed the face of 
every European institution as certainly as it founded the most 
prosperous people and most beneficent civil government in the 
world, is familiar history. Without that opening of providence, 
the progress of science, the growth of humanities, the populariz- 
ation of education and participation in natural plenty had not 
been possible. 

What concerns us now to note is, that the discovery and 
colonization of America, together with the new reformation in 
Europe, made possible the final step in the natural man’s devel- 
opment, — that of self-government. The fermentations of the 
old world had prepared the founders of the colonies to believe 
that “liberty consists in taking on law;” that obedience to God’s 
law is the highest liberty to which man may attain; and that 
man can be a man by self- compelled obedience to the truth. 


INTRODUCTION 


XI 


As this truth has been wrought out in human experience and 
demonstrated in human successes, science has advanced, inven- 
tions multiplied, the conquest of human nature to human uses 
has progressed, the education and culture of the masses succeeded, 
and the possibilities of mankind developed. There has never 
been a state of society in which the natural man has been so 
strong, so intelligent, so well poised, and so marvelously equipped 
for indefinite advancement, as is witnessed to-day. 

The Columbian Exposition was a marvelous exhibition of 
all this progress in natural freedom and power to will and to 
think and to achieve. The contrast between the past and the 
present, the supremacy of mind over matter, the dominancy of 
law in mind and matter, and the all-pervading purpose of law in 
use, was exhibited and emphasized in the entire arrangement of 
the wonderful White City for the display of the world’s wonders. 
The motto over the Peristyle, — “Ye shall know the Truth, and 
the Truth shall make you free,” — Divine in its origin and 
promise, new in its significance and interpretation, embodied the 
idea of the Exposition, as it proclaimed the purpose of Provi- 
dence in all that history which has made a new earth as a founda- 
tion for the new faith and life which God would open from heaven. 

Keeping in view the mission of this book, to set forth the 
abundance of spiritual truths which the Lord has opened from 
His revelation, luminous, self-attesting, rational, and witnessing 
to their Divine origin, — the object here is to point out that the 
purpose of Providence in what we call the progress of the world 
has been to prepare in the natural man, over the widest possible 
base of humanity, an intelligence and self-control capable of 
understanding and obeying the spiritual truths which reign as 
the common law of spiritual life; to prepare in society a com- 
munity of interests and uses which will make the earth a possible 
home for mature spiritual men and women, and society a fit 
theatre for the doing of God’s will on earth as it is done in 
heaven; in a word, the enfranchisment of freedom and rationality 
and the constitution of co-operation for the ends of universal 
use, or the common good. 

The truths which constitute and are to establish a new 
dispensation of the Church and of religion are internal and 
spiritual. It is as it should be that they operate as an inspiring 
and modifying influence upon thought, even when unrecognized. 
They have been scattered by the printing press far and wide. 
They have entered into minds that have become centers of 


xii 


INTRODUCTION 


intellectual currents in science and art and industry, as well as 
in religion. And thus it is that their permeating and modifying 
influence is seen not only in the Parliament of Religions, but in 
the Exposition of the world’s progress. 

Director of works Daniel Hudson Burnham, who will be 
known to the New-Church reader as a grandson of the Rev. 
Holland Weeks, whose ideals in art and utility are derived not 
merely from the general spirit of inquiry and experiment, but 
from the great spiritual principles of truth to which we testify, 
has given an account of the building of the Exposition itself, in 
which he pays tribute to the practical wisdom of the men who 
raised fabulous sums of money for the building of the “ White 
City,” in that they “ freed the arm of the allied arts which until 
now had been bound since Columbus’ day.” “ The Directory 
realized,” he says, “that all successful enterprises have been 
organized and conducted by men specially trained for the work. 
The result was an advanced human organization, bringing 
together the men of material facts and those who dwell in the 
imaginary realm of art. For the first time we were united in 
healthy, sane collaboration. They felt that all years have led up 
to this and that the best results are not in the palaces around us, 
but in the altitude of the workers who designed them, the altitude 
in which the individual has become subordinate and lives only as 
a willing contributor to a general result .” 

This spirit of co-operation in subordination to the common 
end, the realization of beauty and use, which resulted so nobly, 
to the surprise and admiration of the world, was only an 
ultimate manifestation of that which prevailed in the Religious 
Congresses. 

As all men form one Greatest Man; as all times and con- 
ditions and modes of life are parts of the growth and experience 
of universal man; as the advancement of the whole depends 
upon universal respect for every part, and the good of each 
subsists in subordination, not to prejudice and tradition, but to 
the highest good of the whole; it was, therefore, of all things fit 
that the Exposition should show the result, not of the rivalry 
and competition, but of the co-operation and combination of 
the best results of ages and nations, as the Parliament of 
Religions was to be a friendly conference of the lovers of right- 
eousness, bringing out of their treasure “ things new and old,” 
not for controversy, but for comparison; not to establish the old, 
but to make way for the new, 



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The Lecturn and Pulpit shown in the Chancel are those used in the Parliament of Religions, 

now owned by the Chicago Society of the New Jerusalem. 








BOOK I 


THE PARLIAMENT 
OF RELIGIONS 



CHAPTER I 


THE GENESIS OF THE WORLD’S RELIG- 
IOUS CONGRESSES OF 1893 

C. C. Bonney, president of “The World’s Congress 
Auxiliary,” has prepared, at the request of the editors of 
The New- Church Review , on account of the doctrinal 
basis in his own mind, the practical inception, and the 
organization and conduct of the Religious Congresses, 
which, as the whole movement under Divine Providence, 
originated with him, and grew out of his conception of 
the New Jerusalem, belongs here. He has revised that 
account for this publication, making some changes and 
additions, the better to adapt it to the present purpose. 
Speaking as to friends, he writes in the first person of 
the preparation which his life experience had furnished 
for the conception and direction of the Congresses, and 
especially of Religious Congresses which were central in 
his concern. After referring to his early interest in the 
study of comparative religions, he says: 

This first stage of preparation was followed by 
another of still higher significance, under the influence 
of the Church of the Holy City, New Jerusalem. At the 
age of nineteen I removed to Peoria, 111., and there, for 
the first time, saw a New-Church congregation and heard a 
New-Church sermon. My previous information of the 
system of Swedenborg had given me the impression that it 
was a religion for literary and scientific persons, and I was 
therefore surprised to find that this congregation had no 
member eminent in scholastic attainments, excepting the 
pastor. I soon began to read the Church writings and 
collateral books, and to attend, occasionally, the Sunday 


4 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


services and social meetings. In the course of a few 
years I became satisfied that the New-Church does 
indeed teach u the True Christian Religion ” — “ the 
Religion of Common Sense.” — and avowed myself “ a 
receiver of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusa- 
lem.” I had become convinced that this Church would 
finally prove the reconciliation and the crown of all the 
Religions of the world. Acting “ in freedom and accord- 
ing to reason,” I had accepted its matchless creed of 
“ The Divinity of the Lord, the Holiness of the Word, 
and the Life that is called Charity.” 

Here I was taught the fundamental truths which 
made a World’s Parliament of Religions possible; upon 
which rested the whole plan of the Religious Congresses 
of 1893, and which guided the execution of that plan to 
a success so great and far reaching that only the coming 
generations can fully comprehend and estimate its 
influence. Among those truths are these: 

There is a universal influx from God into the souls of men, 
teaching them that there is a God, and that He is one. (T. C. R. 8.) 

It is of the Lord’s Divine Providence that every nation has 
some Religion, and the foundation of all religion is an acknowl- 
edgment that there is a God; otherwise it is not called a religion; 
and every nation which lives according to its religion, that is, 
which refrains from evil because it is against its God, receives 
something spiritual into its natural principle. (D. P. 322.) 

It is of the Divine Providence that every man is capable of 
being saved, and that those are saved who acknowledge God, and 
lead a good life. (D. P. 325.) 

These are the common essentials of all religions, by which 
every one may be saved; to acknowledge a God, and not to do 
evil because it. is against God. These are the two things by 
virtue of which religion is religion. (D. P. 326.) 

It is provided by the Lord that every one who acknowledges 
a God, and abstains from evil because it is against God, has a 
place in heaven; for heaven in the complex resembles one man 
whose life or soul is the Lord. (Ibid.) 


GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 


5 


It is also provided that all who have lived well and acknowl- 
edge a God, should be instructed after death by the angels; and 
then those who have been in these two essentials of religion in 
this world, accept the truths of the Church, such as they are in 
the Word, and acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and 
the Church. (D. P. 328 ) 

It is alleged that those who are out of the Church are not 
baptized; but baptism does not save any except those who are 
spiritually washed, that is regenerat3d, for baptism is a sign and 
memorial thereof. It is also alleged that the Lord is not known 
to them, and that without the Lord there is no salvation; yet no 
one has salvation merely by the Lord being known to him, but 
by living according to His precepts. (D. P. 330.) 

The Mahometan Religion was permitted by the Divine 
Providence of the Lord for the extirpation of idolatries in 
countries where Christianity would not be received. In that 
religion there is something out of both the Testaments of the 
Word; teaching that the Lord came into the world; that he was 
the greatest prophet, the wisest of all, and the Son of God. 
(D. P. 255.) 

Every one in the Churches where faith alone is received, is 
taught that evils are to be shunned as sins. (D. P. 258.) 

It is provided that every one, in whatever heresy he may be 
as to his understanding, may still be reformed and saved, pro- 
vided he shuns evils as sins, and does not confirm heretical 
falsities in himself; for by shunning evils as sins the will is 
reformed, and by the will the understanding, which then first 
emerges out of darkness into light. (D. P. 259.) 

Every infant, wheresoever born, whether within the Church 
or oat of it, whether of pious parents or impious, when it dies is 
received by the Lord, and is educated in heaven, and according 
to Divine order is taught and imbued with the affections of good, 
and by them with the knowledges of truth; and afterwards as 
perfected in intelligence and wisdom is introduced into heaven 
and becomes an angel. (H. H. 329.) 

Turning to the Holy Word and the Apostolic Writ- 
ings, I found abundant confirmation of these teach- 
ings of the Church. A few of the passages which were 
found most useful and encouraging in connection with 
the World’s Religious Congresses, are given here; 


6 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to do 
justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? 
(Mioah vi. 8.) 

All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, 
do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. 
(Matt. vii. 12.) 

Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father, is to 
visit the widows and fatherless in their affliction, and to keep 
unspotted from the world. (James i. 27.) 

That is the True Light which lighteth every man that cometh 
into the world. (John i. 9.) 

And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, 
behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him 
and His disciples. 

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto His disciples, 
Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? 

But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, they that be 
whole nefed not a physician, but they that are sick. 

But go ye and learn what this meaneth: I will have mercy 
and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but 
sinners to repentance. (Matt. ix. 10-13.) 

Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the 
Jews; to them that are under the law, as [myself] under the 
law that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that 
are without the law as [myself] without the law (being not 
without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might 
gain them that are without law; to the weak became I as weak, 
that I might gain the weak; I am made all things to all men, 
that I might by all means save some. (1 Cob. ix. 20, 22.) 

Then Peter opened his mouth and said: Of a truth I per- 
ceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation 
he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with 
Him. (Acts of the Apostles x. 31, 35.) 

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, and said: 

Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too 
superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, 
I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. 
Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you! 
(Acts xvii. 23.) 

God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on 
all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before 


GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 


7 


appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should 
seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, 
though He be not far from every one of us. (Acts xvii. 26, 27.) 

One other course of preparation remains to be 
noticed. For many years before the World’s Columbian 
Exposition was proposed, I enjoyed the inestimable 
benefits of an intimate and cordial association with 
members and ministers of many different denominations, 
and made public addresses on “Law and Order” and 
“ Moral and Social Reforms,” in many different churches. 
Thus I came to know the distinguishing characteristics 
of various religious organizations; to respect their 
sincerity and zeal; to understand the reasons for their 
peculiar views; to learn that all creeds have meanings 
which only those who profess them can explain; that the 
Church essentially consists in certain Divine things, and 
not in the ever varying views of men respecting the 
eternal verities. Thus I came into a state of charity, 
not only toward the various religious denominations of 
Christendom, but also in regard to the different religions 
of the world. I came to realize that it is allowable for a 
devout soul to rest on an apparent truth of Scripture, as 
for a rational mind to rest on an apparent truth in nature. 

In the Baptist Church at Peoria I was the teacher of 
an adult Bible class, and after my removal to Chicago in 
1860, I taught a similar class in St. John’s Episcopal 
Church for some years, while living too far away from 
the New- Church Temple for convenient attendance there. 
Upon the establishment of a New- Church congregation in 
the neighborhood of my residence, I became an active 
member of that organization, and almost continuously 
the instructor of a similar class. Before these classes I 
discussed in a familiar manner and from a layman’s 
point of view the whole range of the religious themes 
which I had made subjects of study. 


8 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


In similar ways it pleased the Divine Providence to 
provide for dealing, when the occasion should arise, with 
the other great departments of human progress which 
were embraced in the World’s Congress scheme, but 
which are not within the scope of the present paper. 

In 1889 the movement for a World’s Fair in cele- 
bration of the quadro-centennial of the discovery of 
America by Columbus, took such a course that it appeared 
probable that such a Fair would be held at Chicago, and 
the character of the proposed exhibition naturally occu- 
pied much attention and elicited many suggestions. It 
was then expected that the celebration would be held in 
1892, but the magnitude of the project finally caused its 
postponement till the following year. While thinking 
about the nature and proper characteristics of this great 
undertaking, there came into my mind the idea of a 
comprehensive and well -organized Intellectual and Moral 
Exposition of the progress of mankind, to be held in 
connection with the proposed display of material forms. 
In the course of a few weeks this idea passed through 
the usual stages of mental evolution, and became a con- 
viction and a purpose which would not let me rest, but 
impelled me to action for its realization. I commenced 
to discuss it with intimate friends, and among them spoke 
of it to Mr. Walter Thomas Mills, then editor of The 
Statesman magazine. He at once urged me to write out 
my proposal, and let him print it in his periodical. In a 
paper dated Sept. 20, 1889, I complied with his 
request, and that paper was published in The Statesman 
for October of that year. In that first statement of the 
World’s Congress scheme, the following paragraphs 
were contained: 

“The crowning glory of the World’s Fair of 1893 
should not be the exhibit then to be made of the material 
triumphs, industrial achievements, and mechanical 


GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 


9 


victories of man, however magnificent that display may 
be. Something higher and nobler is demanded by the 
enlightened and progressive spirit of the present age. 

“ In connection with that important event the world of 
government, jurisprudence, finance, science, literature, 
education and religion should be represented in a Con- 
gress of statesmen, jurists, financiers, scientists, literati, 
teachers and theologians, greater in numbers and more 
widely representative of ‘ peoples, nations and tongues ’ 
than any assemblage which has ever yet been convened. 

“ The benefits of such a Parliament of Nations would 
be higher and more conducive to the welfare of mankind 
than those which would flow from the material exposition, 
though it would not be easy to exaggerate the powerful 
impetus that will be given by the latter to commerce, 
and to all the arts by which toil is lightened, the fruits 
of labor increased, and the comforts of life augmented. 

“For such a Congress, convened under circumstances' 
so auspicious, would surpass all previous efforts to bring 
about a real fraternity of nations, and unite the enlight- 
ened people of the whole earth in a general cooperation 
for the attainment of the great ends for which human 
society is organized.” 

The same article also enumerated some of the great 
themes that would naturally be considered on the pro- 
posed occasion, and this list of subjects was the basis of 
the subsequent organization of the general departments 
of the World’s Congress work. 

The proposal was received with great public favor, 
and on Oct. 15, 1889, a general committee of organiza- 
tion was appointed, with the writer of this paper as 
Chairman, to carry the project into effect. The present 
occasion does not require, and the time and space at 
command do not permit any general sketch of the 
World’s Congress work. Only that part of it which 


10 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


relates to the Religious Congresses can now have more 
than merely incidental notice, and what relates to them 
must be but briefly mentioned, for told at length it would 
fill volumes. 

[After describing the constitution of the “World’s 
Congress Auxiliary of the World’s Columbian Exposition,” 
and the appointment of the Committee on Religious 
Congresses with Rev. John Henry Barrows, D. D., as 
Chairman, Mr. Bonney refers to the representative of the 
New-Church on that committee, and continues:] 

We often discussed together the New-Church as the 
true Catholicism and the true Protestantism; the true 
orthodoxy and the true liberalism; the science of revela- 
tion and the logic of faith. In the introductory chapter 
of his admirable Review of the World’s Religious Con- 
gresess of 1893, Mr. Mercer refers to our personal rela- 
tions, and says that in the spiritual intimacy of years, the 
desirability and feasibility of a universal conference of 
Religions was often dwelt upon on the ground of our 
common faith, of which he gives the following summary: 

A universal medium of salvation has been provided by the 
Lord with every nation that has a Religion, and to bring into 
friendly conference the representatives of all the great historic 
Faiths, and of the denominations of Christendom, would develop 
the fact that to acknowledge the Divine and live well is the 
supreme and universal condition of religion, and would lead to 
the recognition of a universal bond of brotherhood in faithful- 
ness to what one understands to be from the Divine and to lead 
to the Divine. 

With this preparation it is not strange that Mr. 
Mercer performed the work allotted to him in a manner 
which endeared him to the Chairman and the other mem- 
bers of the General Committee, and procured for the 
New-Church such a hearing before the whole religious 
world as was never before attained or even hoped for by 
its apostles. 


GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 


11 


In the “Preliminary Publication’’ of the organization 
of the “ Department of Religion,” by the President of 
the World’s Congress Auxiliary, the object in view was 
declared and the duties of the General Committee were 
defined in these words: 

To unite all Religion against all irreligion; to make the 
Golden Rule the basis of this union; to present to the world in 
the Religious Congresses, to be held in connection with the 
Columbian Exposition of 1893, the substantial unity of many 
Religions in the good deeds of the religious life; to provide for 
a World’s Parliament of Religions in which their common aims 
and common grounds of union may be set forth, and the 
marvelous religious progress of the nineteenth century be 
reviewed; and to facilitate separate and independent Congresses 
of different religious denominations and organizations, under 
their own officers, in which their business may be transacted, 
their achievements presented, and their work for the future 
considered. 

To that Committee I also mentioned the following 
themes, to indicate the general scope of the Department 
of Religion, and to elicit the suggestions of the Commit- 
tees, Advisory Council, Honorary Members, and others 
interested, to be utilized in making the final arrange- 
ments for the proposed Religious Congresses: 

a. The idea of God, its influence and consolations. 

b. The evidences of the existence of God, especially those 
which are calculated to meet the Agnosticism of the present time. 

c. That evils of life are to be shunned as sins against .God* 

d. That the moral law should be obeyed as necessary to 
human happiness, and because such is the will of the Creator. 

e. That the influence of Religion on the family life is to 
make it virtuous and pure. 

/. That the influence of Religion on the community is to 
establish justice, promote harmony, and increase the general 
welfare. 

g. That the influence of Religion on the State is to repress 
evil, vice and disorder in all their forms, and to promote the 
safety and happiness of the people. 


12 


PARLIAMENT OE RELIGIONS 


h. That conscience is not a safe guide unless enlightened by 
Religion and guided by sound reason. 

t. That of a truth God is no respecter of persons, but in 
every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is 
accepted of Him. 

j. That throughout the world the substantial fruits of sin- 
cere Religion include the following: Improved personal char- 
acter, better citizenship, better business methods, nearly all the 
works of charity, improved domestic order, greater public 
peace, etc. 

k. That the weekly Rest Day is indispensable to religious 
liberty and the general welfare of the people. 

l. The triumphs of Religion in all ages. 

m. The present state of Religion throughout the world, includ- 
ing its marvelous advances during the present century. 

n. The statistics of Churches as an answer to the alleged 
prevalence of infidelity. 

o. The dominance of Religion in the higher institutions of 
learning. 

p. The actual harmony of science and Religion, and the 
origin and nature of the alleged conflict between them. 

q. The influence of Religious Missions on the commerce of 
the world. 

r. The influence of Religion on literature and art. 

s. The coming unity of mankind, in the service of God and 
of man. 

t. That there is an influx from God into the mind of every 
man, teaching that there is a God, and that He should be wor- 
shiped and obeyed; and that as the light of the sun is differ- 
ently received by different objects, so the light of Divine 
revelation is differently received by different minds, and hence 
arise varieties in the forms of Religion. 

u. That those who believe in these things may work together 
for the welfare of mankind, notwithstanding they may differ in 
the opinions they hold respecting God, His revelation and man- 
ifestation, and that such fraternity does not require a surrender 
of the points of difference. The Christian, believing in the 
Supreme Divinity of Christ, may so unite with the Jew who 
devoutly believes in the Jehovah of Israel; the Quaker with the 
High Church Episcopalian; the Catholic with the Methodist; the 
Baptist with the Unitarian, eto. 


GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 


13 


With great anxiety I called that Committee together 
for an opening Conference, and explained the basis of 
the proposed Union Congress, and the equal importance 
of the accompanying denominational conventions. To 
my great delight I found the Committee in full accord 
with my views, and ready to go forward in the completion 
and execution of the necessary plans. From that time 
forth the work proceeded silently and with power, as 
a great river sweeps onward to the sea. The movement 
was manifestly in the stream of the Divine Providence 
and carried forward by its mighty tide. 

Dr. Barrows very soon proved his marvelous fitness 
for the great task entrusted to him, and devoted himself 
to it with a tireless energy that assured success. He 
prepared a ‘‘Preliminary Address” for the Committee, 
announcing its purposes to the Religious world, and pro- 
cured the approval of that address by each member of 
the Committee. That remarkable document, bearing the 
names of a Jewish Rabbi, a Catholic Archbishop, Pro- 
testant Bishops and Clergy, both orthodox and liberal, a 
Quaker, and a New- Churchman, was printed for the 
Committee, and thousands of copies distributed through- 
out the world. Many hundreds of letters were written 
by Dr. Barrows and his associates to the religious 
leaders of the different countries. From that address the 
following extracts are given to show its character and spirit: 

Humanity, though sundered by oceans and languages and 
widely differing forms of Religion, is yet one in need, if not alto- 
gether in hope. 

It is not the purpose to create the spirit'of indifferentism in 
regard to the important peculiarities distinguishing the Religions 
of the world, but rather to bring together, in frank and friendly 
conference, the most eminent men of different faiths, strong in 
their personal convictions, who will strive to see and show what 
are the supreme truths, and what light Religion has to throw on 
the great problems of our age. 


14 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


Believing that God is, and that He has not left Himself with- 
out witness; believing that the influence of Religion tends to 
advance the general welfare, and is the most vital force in the 
social order of every people; and convinced that of a truth God 
is no respecter of persons, but that in every nation he that 
feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him, we 
affectionately invite the representatives of all Faiths to aid us in 
presenting to the world, at the Exposition of 1893, the religious 
harmonies and unities of humanity; and also in showing forth 
the moral and spiritual agencies which are at the root of human 
progress. 

From the issuance of this proclamation, the movement 
for the proposed Religious Congresses was a triumphal 
march. It is nevertheless true that there was opposition ; 
but it was unavailing against the manifest will of God 
that a great advance in the religious unity of mankind 
should be accomplished in the year 1893. The responses 
received from every part of the world were most 
inspiring. 

********* 

Thus the success of the Congresses planned for the 
department of Religion in the World’s Congress scheme 
was practically assured long in advance of the time fixed 
for their meeting. The success of the Union Congress 
called the Parliament of Religions, was a sufficient 
guaranty that the denominational Congresses would also 
be satisfactory. For these denominational Congresses 
were planned to anticipate and answer the charge that 
by taking part in the Union Congress any Church had 
abandoned or compromised its own peculiar faith. 

Dr. Barrows’ report in behalf of the General Com- 
mittee closed with the following cheering words: “Your 
Committee thankfully recognize the constant assistance 
given them by you in the prosecution of their enormous 
undertaking. We believe that the hope expressed by 
Cardinal Gibbons will be realized; that the expectations 


GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 


15 


of the most sanguine of those who gave their minds to 
this plan a year ago will be dwarfed by the gigantic 
realities; that the Congresses of Religion that shall meet 
in 1893 will be so noteworthy as to make an epoch in 
history, and be prophetic of that unity of the nations 
which the English laureate foresaw in singing of the 
golden time: 

“ When the war-drums throb no longer, and the battle flags 
are furled, 

In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the World.” 

A large Advisory Council, composed of eminent repre- 
sentatives of faith and morals, selected from the different 
countries, was appointed to aid the Local Committee in 
making the necessary arrangements, especially in forming 
the programme for the great occasion. 

The report also proposed certain general rules and 
regulations for the government of the Parliament of 
Religions. These were approved, and became the law 
under which the Congress was convened. 

It was declared that — 

1. Those taking part in the Parliament are to conform to 
the limitations and directions of the General Committee on 
Religious Congresses of the World’s Congress Auxiliary, and 
they are carefully to observe the spirit and principles set forth 
in the preliminary address of this Committee. 

2. The speakers accepting the invitation of the General 
Committee will state their own beliefs, and the reasons for them, 
with the greatest frankness, without, however, employing 
unfriendly criticisms of other Faiths. 

3. The Parliament is to be made a grand international 
assembly for mutual conference, fellowship and information, 
and not for controversy, for worship, for the counting of votes, 
or for the passing of resolutions. 

4 . The proceedings of the Parliament will be conducted in 
the English language. 

The objects of the World’s Parliament of Religions 
were also restated and more explicitly defined, in the 


16 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. 


light of the correspondence to which reference has been 
made. Those objects have now become of such great 
historic interest that I deem it important to introduce 
them here. They will somewhat explain the readiness 
with which so many eminent representatives of the great 
Religions of the world agreed to take an active part in 
the proposed Religious Congress. Dr. Barrows says: 

After f ull consideration and conference with representative 
members of the Advisory Council, your Committee propose the 
following statement of the objects of the World’s Parliament of 
Religions: 

1. To bring together in conference, for the first time in 
history, the leading representatives of the great Historic 
Religions of the world. 

2. To show to men, in the most impressive way, what and 
how many truths the various Religions hold and teach in common. 

3. To promote and deepen the spirit of human brotherhood 
among religious men of diverse Faiths, through friendly 
conference and mutual good understanding, while not seeking to 
foster the temper of indifferentism, and not striving to achieve 
any formal and outward unity. 

4. To set forth, by those most competent to speak, what are 
deemed the important distinctive truths held and taught by each 
Religion, and by the various chief branches of Christendom. 

5. To indicate the impregnable foundations of Theism, and 
the reasons for man’s faith in Immortality, and thus to unite and 
strengthen the forces which are adverse to a materialistic phil- 
osophy of the universe. 

6. To secure from leading scholars representing the Brah- 
man, Buddhist, Confucian, Parsee, Mohammedan, Jewish and 
other Faiths, and from representatives of the various Churches 
of Christendom, full and accurate statements of the spiritual and 
other effects of the Religions which they hold upon the Liter- 
ature, Art, Commerce and Government, and the Domestic and 
Social Life of the peoples among whom these Faiths have 
prevailed. 

7. To inquire what light each Religion has afforded or may 
afford to the other Religions of the world. 


GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 


17 


8. To set forth, for permanent record to be published to 
the world, an accurate and authoritative account of the present 
condition and outlook of Religion among the leading nations of 
the earth. 

9. To discover, from competent men, what light Religion 
has to throw on the great problems of the present age, especially 
the important questions connected with Temperance, Labor, 
Education, Wealth and Poverty. 

10. To bring the nations of the earth into a more friendly 
fellowship, in the hope of securing permanent international 
peace. 

This statement was accepted and approved, as 
embracing all the essential features of the great work 
then in course of organization, and the Parliament of 
Religions was accordingly convened for the execution of 
the definite purposes expressed in the declaration above set 
forth. Those who were requested to take part were thus 
explicitly informed of the nature and limitations of the 
convocation to which they were invited. When the 
World’s Congresses of 1893 were first proposed, it was 
thought that the leaders of progress in all depart- 
ments could be assembled in Chicago for a few weeks to 
hold a series of union and department sessions, but it 
soon became manifest that the work must be extended 
through the whole Exposition season, and that each gen- 
eral department must be assigned to a separate date from 
the others, except a few cases of kindred departments 
which could be accommodated at the same time. The 
first general assignment of the Congresses for the six 
months of the season, included in the arrangements for 
June, the Congresses on Religion. But it was found 
impractical to bring the religious leaders of distant lands 
to Chicago so early in the year, and it was finally decided 
to hold the Congresses of that department in the month 
of September, and the first half of October. So many 
assignments for the midsummer months had previously 


18 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


been made, that neither July nor August was then at 
disposal. The General Committee of Organization now 
devoted all its energies, under the leadership of Dr. 
Barrows, to the incomparably difficult task of making a 
working programme for the Parliament of Religions by 
formulating specific subjects to be presented in the 
sessions, and making actual engagements with selected 
leaders to prepare papers upon the particular themes 
assigned to them. The marvelous success of that work 
will be noticed below. In the meantime the applications 
from the different religious denominations, for an oppor- 
tunity to present their faith and achievements in separate 
Congresses, had become so numerous that it became plain 
that this part of the great undertaking would also be 
crowned with a most gratifying success. Denominational 
Committees were appointed to make arrangements and 
prepare programmes for these organizations. 

********* 

It is but simple justice to declare that the cordial 
cooperation of the women of the various Churches largely 
contributed to the great success of the Religious Con- 
gresses of 1893. Never before did woman have so large 
and noble a part in a series of religious assemblages; 
and never before did she acquit herself in a manner 
deserving of higher praise. 

******** 

With wonderful harmony and zeal the work of prep, 
aration went forward, and early in the World’s Congress 
season it became manifest that the Religious Congresses 
would realize the expectations in regard j,o them, and 
crown the whole World’s Congress scheme with a great and 
splendid success. The first Religious Congress held was 
that of the Jewish Church, which commenced its sessions 
on Sunday, Aug. 27, 1893. I had the great felicity 
of presiding at the opening meeting, and delivering an 


GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 


19 


address of welcome which was most cordially received, 
and which, it seems to me, should here be given as the 
best possible exemplification of the fundamental principle 
of the Union Congress of all Religions. I shall always 
gratefully remember the blessings with which my 
Christian greetings were acknowledged. 

“Masters and Teachers of Israel: Officers and 
Members of the Jewish Denominational Congress of 
1893: — The providence of the God of Abraham, Isaac 
and Jacob, who created man in His own image, and gave 
him from Sinai’s glory-crowned summit the law of a 
righteous life, has so ordered the arrangements for the 
Religious Congresses to be held under the auspices of 
the World’s Congress Auxiliary of the World’s Columbian 
Exposition, that, without any special plan to that end, 
this Congress of the Jewish Church is the first of the 
series. . , . Thus the Mother Church from which all 

the Christian Denominations trace their lineage, and 
which stands in the history of mankind as the especial 
exponent of august and triumphant theism, has 
been called upon to open the Religious Congresses 
of 1893. 

“ But far more important and significant is the fact 
that this arrangement has been made, and this Congress 
is now formally opened and welcomed, by as ultra and 
ardent a Christian as the world contains. It is because I 
am a Christian, and the Chairman of the General Com- 
mittee of Organization of the Religious Congresses is a 
Christian, and a large majority of that Committee are 
Christians, that this day deserves to stand gold-bordered 
in human histoiy, as one of the signs that a new age of 
brotherhood and peace has truly come. 

“We know that you are Jews, while we are Christians 
and would have all men so; but of all the precious liber- 
ties which free men enjoy, the highest is the freedom to 


20 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


worship God according to the dictates of conscience; and 
this great liberty is the right, not of some men only, but 
of all — not of Christians, merely, but of Jews and Gen- 
tiles as well. I desire from all men respect for my 
religious convictions, and claim for myself and mine the 
right to enjoy them without molestation, and my master 
has commanded me that whatsoever I would have another 
do to me, I should also do to him. What, therefore, I ask 
for myself, a Christian, I must give to you as Jews. Our 
differences of opinion and belief are between ourselves 
and God, the Judge and Father of us all. Through all 
the Sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament we walk side 
by side, revering the creation, journeying through the 
wilderness, chanting the Psalms, and inspired by the 
prophecies; and if we part at the threshold of the Gospels, 
it shall not be with anger, but with love, and a grateful 
remembrance of our long and pleasant journey from 
Genesis to Malachi. 

“The supreme significance of this Congress and the 
others is that they herald the death of persecution 
throughout the world, and proclaim the coming reign of 
civil and religious liberty. 

“Oh Religion! Religion! how many crimes have 
been committed in thy name! The crimes committed 
in the name of Liberty are but few in comparison. 

“Against religious persecution all the Religions in the 
world should be united, and support each other with 
unfailing zeal. This is not saying that all Religions are 
of equal worth. This is not saying that any one should 
yield one jot or tittle of his own peculiar faith. It is quite 
the contrary. For it is only when one is protected in 
his proper liberties, and can ‘act in freedom according to 
reason,’ that he can properly examine his own faith or 
that of his fellow men. With perfect religious liberty, 
with comprehensive and adequate education, and a life 


GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 


21 


according to the great Commandments, mankind will 
come into closer and closer relations, into a better and 
better understanding of their social, political and relig- 
ious differences, and the living power of the truth, guided 
by the Sovereign Providence of God, will more and more 
make the whole world one in brotherhood and service, 
and finally one in religious faith. 

“Henceforth the leaders of mankind will seek, not 
for points of difference, but for grounds of union, striv- 
ing earnestly to know the truth, that the truth may make 
them free from the bondage of prejudice and error, and 
more and more efficient in advancing the enlightenment 
and welfare of the world. 

“With these sentiments I welcome the Jewish Denom- 
inational Congress of ISOS.” 

Of the responses to this address, I will only say, at 
this time, that I wish all Christendom could have heard 
them and the leading discourse of the day which followed 
them, and to which I would make further reference if the 
limits of this article would permit. The remaining space 
must be devoted to a brief notice of the Parliament of 
Religions. 

The first session of this august assembly was held on 
Monday morning, Sept. 11, 1893. The day arrived. 
The programme for seventeen days had been prepared, 
the participants from all parts of the world had come, an 
intense public interest had been aroused, and a great 
audience filled the Memorial Art Palace, anxiously seek- 
ing for seats in the Hall of Columbus. Hundreds of 
trained and skillful pens have tried to describe the won- 
derful opening scene, but I think all who were present 
will agree that no description can convey an adequate 
idea of the inspiring majesty of the actual event. The 
assembling of leligious leaders in the Presidents office 
and reception hall; the gracious interchange of friendly 


22 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 

greetings; the formation of the imposing procession to 
the platform of Columbus Hall; the stately march 
through the great throng of expectant people that rever- 
ently parted to make an open way; the appropriate 
grouping of representatives in arranging the platform, 
with Cardinal Gibbons the highest in rank of the attend- 
ing ecclesiastical dignitaries on the President’s right, and 
Rev. Dr. Barrows, Chairman of the Parliament, on his 
left; the great audience, a living sea of eager human 
souls; the spontaneous outbursts of applause, softened by 
the solemnity of the occasion; the opening of the cere- 
monies at a sign from the President, by chanting the 
Doxology with the organ accompaniment, followed by the 
hymn “ Before Jehovah’s Awful Throne;” the announce- 
ment of a few moments of silent prayer, to be followed 
by the Universal Prayer, led by the American Cardinal; 
the grandeur and pathos of that union of hearts and 
voices from all parts of the world in the appeal to “Our 
Father Who art in the Heavens;” the addresses of welcome 
and the addresses in reply; the quick and sympathetic 
responses of the audience to the noblest utterances of the 
orators; the moral and intellectual beauty and dignity of 
the heads and faces that glorified the great hall with the 
very bloom and fruitage of human progress — what words 
can adequately picture and reproduce such incomparable 
scenes as these? 

********* 

A brief outline of the programme is given in my opening 
address to the Parliament, and it seems to me that I can- 
not write any new words which will convey so true an 
idea of the occasion as will those which I used in that 
address, which is, therefore, here reproduced. 

“Worshipers of God and Lovers of Man: — Let us 
rejoice that we have lived to see this glorious day; let us 
give thanks to the Eternal God, whose mercy endureth 


GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 


23 


forever, that we are permitted to take part in the solemn 
and majestic event of a World’s Congress of Religions. 
The importance of this event cannot be overestimated. 
Its influence on the future relations of the various races 
of men cannot be too highly esteemed. 

“If this Congress shall faithfully execute the duties 
with which it has been charged, it will become a joy of 
the whole earth and stand in human history like a new 
Mount Zion, crowned with glory and marking the actual 
beginning of a new epoch of brotherhood and peace. 

“ For when the Religious Faiths of the world recognize 
each other as brothers, children of one Father, whom all 
profess to love and serve, then, and not till then, will the 
nations of the earth yield to the spirit of concord and 
learn war no more. 

“It is inspiring to think that in every part of the 
world many of the worthiest of mankind, who would 
gladly join us here if that were in their power, this day 
lift their hearts to the Supreme Being in earnest prayer 
for the harmony and success of this Congress. To them 
our own hearts speak in love and sympathy of this 
impressive and prophetic scene. 

“ In this Congress the word ‘ Religion’ means the love 
and worship of God and the love and service of man. 
We believe the Scripture that ‘of a truth God is no 
respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth 
God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him.’ We 
come together in mutual confidence and respect, without 
the least surrender or compromise of anything which we 
respectively believe to be truth or duty, with the hope 
that mutual acquaintance and a free and sincere inter- 
change of views on the great questions of eternal life 
and human conduct will be mutually beneficial. 


24 


parliament oe religions 


“ The Religious Faiths of the world have most seriously 
misunderstood and misjudged each other, from the use 
of words in meanings radically different from those which 
they were intended to bear, and from a disregard of the 
distinctions between appearances and facts, between 
signs and symbols and the things signified and repre- 
sented. Such errors it is hoped that this Congress will 
do much to correct and to render hereafter impossible. 

“He who believes that God has revealed himself more 
fully in his Religion than in any other cannot do other- 
wise than desire to bring that Religion to the knowledge 
of all men, with an abiding conviction that the God who 
gave it will preserve, protect and advance it in every 
expedient way. And hence he will welcome every just 
opportunity to come into fraternal relations with men 
of other creeds, that they may see in his upright life the 
evidence of the truth and beauty of his faith, and be 
thereby led to learn it, and be helped heavenward by it. 

“When it pleased God to give me the idea of the 
World’s Congresses of 1893 there came with that idea a 
profound conviction that their crowning glory should be 
a fraternal conference of the world’s Religions. Accord- 
ingly, the original announcement of the World’s Con- 
gress scheme, which was sent by the government of the 
United States to all other nations, contained among other 
great themes to be considered, ‘The grounds of fraternal 
union in the Religions of different people.’ 

“The programme for the Religious Congresses of 
1893 constitutes what may, with perfect propriety, be 
designated as one of the most remarkable publications of 
the century. The programme of this General Parlia- 
ment of Religions directly represents England, Scotland, 
Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany, Russia, Turkey, 
Greece, Egypt, Syria, India, Japan, China, Ceylon, New 
Zealand, Brazil, Canada, and the American States, and 


GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 


25 


indirectly includes many other countries. This remark- 
able programme presents, among other great themes to 
be considered in this Congress, Theism, Judaism, 
Mohammedanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Con- 
fucianism, Shintoism, Zoroastrianism, Catholicism, the 
Greek Church, Protestantism in many forms, and also 
refers to the nature and influence of other Religious 
systems. 

“This programme also announces for presentation the 
great subjects of revelation, immortality, the Incarnation 
of God, the universal elements in Religion, the ethical 
unity of different religious systems, the relations of 
Religion to morals, marriage, education, science, philos- 
ophy, evolution, music, labor, government, peace and 
war, and many other themes of absorbing interest. The 
distinguished leaders of human progress by whom these 
great topics will be presented constitute an unparalleled 
galaxy of eminent names, but we may not pause to call 
the illustrious roll. 

“The third part of the general programme for the 
Congresses of this department consists of separate and 
independent Congresses of the different religious denom- 
inations for the purpose of more fully setting forth their 
doctrines and the service they have rendered to mankind. 
These special Congresses will be held, for the most part, 
in the smaller halls of this Memorial Building. A few 
of them have, for special reasons, already been held. It 
is the special object of these Denominational Congresses 
to afford opportunities for further information to all who 
may desire it. The leaders of these several churches 
most cordially desire the attendance of the representa- 
tives of other Religions. The Denominational Con- 
gresses will each be held during the week in which the 
presentation of the denomination will occur. 


3 


26 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


“The fourth and final part of the programme of the 
Department of Religion will consist of Congresses of vari- 
ous kindred organizations. These Congresses will be 
held between the close of the Parliament of Religions 
and Oct. 15, and will include Missions, Ethics, Sunday 
rest, the Evangelical Alliance, and similar associations. 
The Congress on Evolution should, in regularity, have 
been held in the department of science, but circumstances 
prevented, and it has been given a place in this depart- 
ment by the courtesy of the Committee of Organization. 

“Let one other point be clearly stated. While the 
members of this Congress meet, as men, on a common 
ground of perfect equality, the ecclesiastical rank of 
each, in his own Church, is at the same time gladly 
recognized and respected, as the just acknowledgment 
of his services and attainments. But no attempt is here 
made to treat all Religions as of equal merit. Any such 
idea is expressly disclaimed. In this Congress, each 
system of Religion stands by itself in its own perfect 
integrity, uncompromised in any degree by its relation 
to any other. In the language of the preliminary publi- 
cation in the Department of Religion, we seek in this Con- 
gress ‘to unite all Religion against all irreligion; to make 
the Golden Rule the basis of this union; and to present 
to the world the substantial unity of many Religions in 
the good deeds of the Religious life.’ Without contro- 
versy, or any attempt to pronounce judgment upon any 
matter of Faith or worship or Religious opinion, we seek 
a better knowledge of the Religious condition of all man- 
kind, with an earnest desire to be useful to each other 
and to all,othere who love truth and righteousness. 

“To this more than imperial feast, I bid you welcome. 

“We meet on the mountain height of absolute respect 
for the religious convictions of each other; and an earnest 
desire for a better knowledge of the consolations which 


GENESIS OF THE CONGRESSES 


27 


other forms of F aith than our own offer to their devotees. 
The very basis of our convocation is the idea that the 
representatives of each Religion sincerely believe that it 
is the truest and best of all ; and that they will, there- 
fore, hear with perfect candor and without fear the con- 
victions of other sincere souls on the great questions of 
the immortal life. 

“ This day the sun of a new era of religious peace 
and progress rises over the world, dispelling the dark 
clouds of sectarian strife. This day a new flower blooms 
in the gardens of religious thought, filling the air with 
its exquisite perfume. This day a new fraternity is born 
into the world of human progress, to aid in the upbuild- 
ing of the kingdom of God in the hearts of men. Era 
and flower and fraternity bear one name. It is a name 
which will gladden the hearts of those who worship God 
and love man in every clime. Those who hear its 
music, joyfully echo it back to sun and flower. 

“ It is the Brotherhood of Religions. 

“ In this name I welcome the first Parliament of the 
Religions of the World.’’ 

Of the stupendous work of the Religious Congresses 
of 1893, there is not now space in which to speak. It 
may be said, however, that in the dignity, importance, 
and comprehensiveness of the themes presented; the 
eminence, eloquence, power and representative character 
of the speakers; the decorum, sympathy and intense 
interest of the great audiences; the constant increase of 
mutual respect, affection and courtesy; and in convinc- 
ing assurances that the whole world will be greatly 
benefited and uplifted by the proceedings, the World’s 
Parliament of Religions is entitled to the very highest 
rank in the whole history of public assemblies. The 
spirit of peace and concord was so all-pervading and 


28 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 

potent that both speakers and audiences felt and acknowl 
edged its sovereign power. 

Such was the Genesis of the World’s Religious Con 
grosses of 1893. 


CHAPTER II 


A NARRATIVE AND CRITICAL AC- 
COUNT OF THE PARLIAMENT 
OF RELIGIONS 

BY BEY. FRANK SEWALL 
From, Things Seen and Heard 


I 

HOW IT CAME TO PASS 

Remarkable as the recent World’s Parliament of 
Religions has been, considered as a signal event in the 
religious history of the world, it is of peculiar interest 
to the New Church as affording in many ways a striking 
corroboration of Swedenborg’s statements concerning the 
religious condition of mankind in the present age of 
transition from an old to a new Christian dispensation, 
concerning the essential relation the various Religions of 
the world bear to one another, and especially concerning 
the effect produced upon the human mind everywhere by 
the great judgment which has been enacted in the 
spiritual world, marl ins* the “ consummation of the 
age ” foretold in the Gospel, and the beginning of the 
era of the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse. 

“Since that judgment, ” says Swedenborg, “ men have 
come into a freer way of thinking about spiritual things.” 
Except for this freedom of the new age the holding of 
such a Parliament would have been an impossibility, and 
nothing was so marked a feature of this Parliament 
throughout all its proceedings as precisely this absolute 
freedom, not only in thinking, but in speaking and 
mutually conferring on spiritual subjects. 


30 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


“It is the unexpected that happens;” which is only 
another way of saying that there is a Divine Providence 
that avails itself of hurt: an efforts, but often to bring out 
of them results that no one has anticipated. No one can 
foretell what the effect on the future course of the world 
this Parliament is to have; no one who participated in it 
can feel that it will be without effect; but every one who 
was tlmre knows that there was a spirit, an indefinable 
presence and movement, “as of a rushing, mighty wind,” 
in that vast assemblage that none could have foreseen, 
because it was an experience utterly new in the history 
of the world. It is difficult to describe satisfactorily these 
proceedings because their power was, as was said, not so 
much in what was uttered as in what was felt in the per- 
sonal contact face to face and eye to eye of these heralds 
and spokesmen of the great Religious Faiths of mankind. 

Let us recall the scene of that ever memorable morn- 
ing, the 11th of October, when there came upon the plat- 
form of the vast Columbus Hall, filled with its four 
thousand spectators, that procession of theleadors and of 
the ablest exponents of the world’s great historic Relig- 
ions. There were the ancient, “Eastern,” and “Western 
Churches,” of Christendom, represented by the highest 
dignitary of the Catholic Church in America, Cardinal 
Gibbons, and by tho venerable Archbishop of Zante, of 
the Greek Church, both in their canonical vest- 
ments, and attended by their suite of subordinate clergy; 
the Protestant Church of Christendom represented by 
Chairman Barrows of Chicago, the Rev. Dr. Momerie of 
London, Prof. Bonet-Maury of Paris, Count Bernstoff 
of Berlin and many other prominent ministers and iay- 
men; the Armenian Christian Church by its delegate 
from Cilicia, Asia Minor; the Church in Syria 
by its Archimandrite, Gibora of Damascus, the African 
Christian Church in America by two of its bishops; the 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


31 


Greek Church of Russia by Prince Serge Wolkonski of 
St. Petersburg; the ancient Confucian Religion of the 
Chinese represented by a member of the Chinese Lega- 
tion at Washington with his suite of attendants, bring- 
ing an essay sent by order of the Emperor of China; the 
most ancient of J apanese Religions, that of Shinto, repre- 
sented by its high priest and scholars all in their quaint 
ceremonial garments; the Brahmins of India, represented 
by Harain of Bombay and by the youthful and happy- 
faced monk, Suami Vivi Kananda, clad in an orange col- 
ored garb and golden turban; the vast following of the 
gentle Buddha, represented by the tall and graceful 
Dharmapala of Ceylon, clad in pure white; the Religion 
of Jain, by Gandhi, the thoughtful faced Secretary of 
their Association at Bombay; the Brahmo-Somaj, the 
so-called “New Dispensation of India,” represented by 
the deep-eyed and mellow-voiced Mozoomdar, author of 
“The Oriental Christ,” and by the scholarly and gentle 
Nagarkar; also the leader in Oriental theosophy, Chakra- 
varti, besides many of the other sects or orders of Brah- 
mins and Buddhists both of Japan and India represented 
by their priests, scholars, pilgrims and monks; the native 
African represented by the young and bright-faced Prince 
Momolu Massaquoi, a Christian convert of the tribe of 
the Yeys, near Liberia; the ancient Religion of Moses as 
represented by the venerable and eloquent Jewish Rabbis 
Wise of Cincinnati, Gottheil of New York, and Hirsch 
of Chicago. 

In the midst of this impressive and august body, 
with cardinal, archbishops, bishops, priests and scholars 
of all the Faiths of mankind on his right and left, sat, as 
president, organizer and director of the whole, a New- 
Churchman, our zealous and beloved brother, Charles C. 
Bonney, Esq., and near at hand his pastor, the Rev. 
Lewis P. Mercer, to both of whom, under providence, 


32 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


mankind is indebted, we have reason to believe, for the 
first conception of this mighty enterprise, so full of 
meaning to the whole Religious world, and for its suc- 
cessful conduct through appalling difficulties and dis- 
couragements to this triumphant and happy issue. 
Rightfully did President Bonney hold the central place 
in that assemblage, not only as representing the New 
Church of this new age, without whose influence and 
inspiration from above into all the Faiths of mankind 
this meeting could never have come about, but by his 
universally acceptable management and direction, his 
wise judgment, happy manner and broad and liberal 
comprehension of the scope and purpose of the meeting, 
proving himself the providential instrument for making 
the occasion productive of the highest results for good. 
It was not strange that President Bonney’s name, as 
“the man we all love,” was in the mouths of these gentle 
visitors from the far East, that his appearance was 
always the occasion for joyous applause from the audi- 
ence, that his words always seemed most happily to meet 
the moment, to bring some bright, fresh and happy 
thought or interpretation to what was going on; nor that, 
later, in the wonderful closing scenes of the Parliament, 
the night of the parting, he was hailed and cheered by 
the vast audience rising to their feet and waving their 
handkerchiefs; so that it was long before he could utter 
his words of humble and sincere acknowledgment and 
gratitude — “Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto 
thy name give the glory!” 

Thus, as on a second Pentecost, the birthday of a 
new Christianity, we see the tribes of the earth all 
assembled by their representatives into this Religious 
Parliament, called together and presided over by a New- 
Churchman. I say called by a New-Churchman, not 
with any authority as such, or with any recognition or 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


33 


knowledge of him as such by those who answered; but 
as in the providence of the Lord so brought about, and 
in that Divine Providence resulting in so many remark- 
able corroborations of the teachings of the Church. 

It will be remembered that at the first day of Pente- 
cost “ there were dwelling at Jerusalem, devout men out 
of every nation under heaven,” who came together to 
hear the Apostle who had received the gift of the Spirit 
and spake with tongues. Here were “ Parthians, Medes 
and Elamites, the dwellers in Mesopotamia, in Judaea, in 
Cappadocia, in Pontus and in Asia, Phrygia and Pam- 
phylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, 
strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and 
Arabians.” (Acts ii: 1-11.) And yet neither were these 
called together .by any authority civil or ecclesiastical. 
They were simply there, at the Lord’s appointed time, 
for the introduction of a new Religion into the world, 
“ when the day of Pentecost was fully come.” And after 
gladly receiving the Word, which Peter the Apostle then 
preached to them, some three thousand of these Jews 
and strangers were baptized and added to the infant 
Church of Jesus Christ. 

Now it is a remarkable circumstance that the recent 
Parliament of Religions was the result of no authoritative 
act of any body of men, either national or ecclesiastical. 
Not only could no one Church, or no one nation in its 
civil or ecclesiastical capacity command such a meeting, 
but in no other country of the world could such a Par- 
liament have met in the freedom it here enjoyed from 
everything like the bias, whether of Church establish- 
ment, or sectarian, or political prejudice of any kind. It 
is true the United States Government gave its sanction 
to this Auxiliary Congress, as to every other feature of 
the World’s Columbian Exhibition, but the Religious 
Parliament never originated in the schemes or purposes 


34 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


of any body of the Church or nation, but in the minds of 
individuals first, and then in the kind and brotherly 
cooperation of a few large-hearted, far -visioned men, 
gifted by the Lord with a deep love of the world’s wel- 
fare and advancement, and with the prophetic wisdom 
that comes from that love. Such a man was the Rev. 
John Henry Barrows, D. D., of the Presbyterian Church, 
Chairman of the General Committee on the Religious 
Congresses, who was one of the first to respond to Mr. 
Bonney’s proposal; such were the other broad-minded 
men, the true leaders of their fellow believers, both of 
Christian and of Gentile faiths, who took in at the out- 
set the broad and high uses the meeting was designed tc 
subserve for all mankind, and who were loyal enough to 
their own Faiths not to be afraid to have them confronted 
with others, while they hoped that each would have some 
thing to give to others, to perfect what was already pos- 
sessed. And so it was at no authoritative call that these 
Religions came together to be thus “ with one accord ir? 
one place” in the city of Chicago in the year 1893. 

II 

REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE PLACE AND TIME 

The place and year are also significant. It was what 
will long be remembered as the Columbian year when the 
civilized world united in commemorating, by a united 
exhibition of the products of art and industry, the discov- 
ery of a new world by Columbus — the “Christ-bearer ’> 
Was not this a part of the “new world” to which in the 
Lord’s Providence he led the way? Was not this one of 
those revelations of the hidden things of God that lie 
behind the Divine leadings of men. Listen to what 
Columbus wrote to his friend, on his first return- voyage 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


35 


from America: “The Lord often grants to men what 
they never imagine themselves capable of effecting, as 
lie is accustomed to hear the prayer of His servants and 
those who love His commandments even in that which 
appears impossible; in this manner has it happened to 
me who have succeeded in an undertaking never before 
accomplished by man. . . And now ought the whole 

of Christendom to give thanks to our Savior Jesus Christ, 
who has granted us such a victory and great success. 
Let Christ rejoice upon earth as He does in heaven, to 
witness the coming salvation of so many people hereto- 
fore given over to perdition.” Such was the prophetic 
word and vision of the Lord’s messenger four hundred 
years ago, a prophecy to have its fulfillment in many 
ways still unknown to us as it was to Columbus himself. 

To extend the commercial intercourse of the world 
was the secular motive in the enterprise which led to the 
discovery and the settlement of America; and this com- 
mercial intercourse, says Swedenborg, is the means 
especially ordained by the Lord for the carrying of the 
written Word around the world. (“Earths in the Uni- 
verse,” 116.) Columbus, the discoverer of a land of gold 
mines and rare fruits and spices, was also the bearer of 
God’s Word. But to whom? Not to the natives who 
have failed to this day to be converted as a race to 
Christianity, and yet who were not on that account 
“given over to perdition;” not to the Colonists, for they 
had the Word already; but to a great free people that 
was to be, where — in a land “ remote from the Chris- 
tianity ” of that day — there should some day be sown the 
seed of a new Christianity among the Gentiles of the 
earth. Even in Swedenborg’s time Chicago was an 
untrodden waste. When he wishes to represent a state 
of barbarism, as compared with civilization, he mentions 
the savages of America. Yet here in this waste and distant 


36 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


land, in this memorable Columbian year, we behold 
the Gentiles of the earth coming together to hear the 
Word of the Lord, and to feel the impulses of that new 
Christianity which characterizes, throughout, this 
extraordinary meeting. 

Recalling the day of Pentecost two other reflections 
occur. On that day the .recorder of the Acts of the 
Apostles describes the assemblage as consisting of dwellers 
“out of every nation under heaven.” Noticing the coun- 
tries there enumerated we find they cover the area of only 
a small portion of earth, extending from Parthia, this 
side of India, on the east, to the countries immediately 
about the Mediterranean on the west. The whole area 
could hardly have equaled the present territory of the 
United States alone. At the meeting of the races and 
Religions in Chicago — literally the whole round world was 
represented; and like the infant Church of Christ at 
Jerusalem among the “Jews and strangers and prose- 
lytes,” so was the Christian Church at the Parliament, 
even counting its many millions of adherents, still vastly 
outnumbered by the Gentile Religions there represented, 
the various orders of the Hindu and Buddhist Faiths 
alone numbering some four hundred and seventy-five 
millions of men. 

Great therefore as has been the outspreading of Chris- 
tianity since that day of its birth, yet how vast a propor- 
tion of mankind still constitute that Gentile world out 
of which we are promised is to spring up the great new 
Christian Church of the future. 

The other reflection is that on the day of Pentecost, 
all these various tribes heard the Word preached to them 
miraculously each in its own tongue. Such, too, was 
the case in the Parliament of Religions. But what is 
wonderful is, that the one intelligible tongue of all these 
assembled races of the world was the English language — 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


87 

the only one used in the addresses at the Parliament, 
except in a few cases where the Oriental speakers spoke 
first in their own language to be immediately followed 
in English by an interpreter. 

Now there is a deep significance in this fact, that this 
Parliament was held in the English language. On its 
natural historic side it means that all the world is learn- 
ing English as the language of the commerce of the 
earth, and that on the wings of commerce the Bible is 
being earned to all the races of mankind. “Its sound 
is gone out into all lands and its words to the end of the 
world.” Swedenborg tells us that the English speaking 
nations are in the center of the spiritual world and in 
the greatest light there, because they are chiefly in pos- 
session of the Word and enjoy its illumination. This 
must mean that ihe Anglo-Saxon people, more than all 
others, prize and use their Bibles, and more than all 
others are instruments in the sending out of the Word 
to other nations. This is borne out by the fact that no 
Christian denomination makes provision in its liturgy or 
discipline for so extensive and constant a use of the 
sacred Scriptures as does the Church of England, both 
in private and public worship, and no other agency in the 
world equals those of the British and the American 
Foreign Bible Society in distributing Bibles throughout 
the world. Around these English guardians and almoners 
of the Word of God, are arranged other peoples in spirit- 
ual order according to their religious illumination from 
the Word, the Divine center of light: 

For the Word in the Church, although it is with compara- 
tively few, is life from the Lord through heaven to all the rest, 
just as the life of the members of the body is from the heart 
and lungs. . . This is also the reason why the Christians 

among whom the Word is read, constitute the breast of that (one) 
man (which the whole heaven and the whole Church present 
before the Lord). These are also in the midst of all; and around 


38 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


them are the Papists; around these are the Mohammedans who 
acknowledge the Lord as the greatest prophet and as the Son of 
God; after these are the Africans; and the nations and peoples of 
Asia and the Indies make the outermost circumference. All who 
are in that man also look towards the middle region where the 
Christians are. (S. S. 105.) 

Do we see a corroboration of this in the voluntary 
coming together of these tribes from the circumference 
to that sphere of Divine light which burns in the center 
and the breast of humanity where Christians are ? Do 
we see a wonderful fulfillment of the ancient prophecy 
realized anew — “And the Gentiles shall come to thy 
light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising” — in the 
coming together of these gentle- voiced, tender and 
humane magi of the East, to testify of their search for 
the true and living God, and of their efforts to lead 
others to Him ? By the Gentiles are meant in general 
those who are in good of life, but in obscurity as to the 
truth. Do we not note in many of the utterances of the 
Oriental delegates to this Parliament something which 
indicates a deep interior searching for the true Christ, 
even though He be unknown, and so an echo of their 
ancient message — “We have seen his star in the East, and 
have come to worship him.” For that the light of 
Christianity is dawning on the minds of the whole Ori- 
ental world no one can doubt; and many are the souls 
that are setting out at the first dawning of that star to 
journey onward in its light if so they may find the true 
Messiah, the Savior of the world. 

Ill 

THE AUDIENCE 

Such, then, to recur to that memorable opening morn- 
ing of the Parliament, was the representation of the 
Religions gathered together for the first time in the history 


USINGS SEEN AND HEAED 


39 


of man. At a word from President Bonney, bidding all 
to unite in the “universal prayer of mankind,” the Ameri- 
can cardinal of the Homan Catholic Church led in the 
repetition of the “Our Father” joined in by the deep 
murmur of the sea of voices of those around him, and of 
the thousands before him. Here stood with bowed head 
the Chinese, the Hindu, the Persian, Syrian, Greek, 
Hebrew, African, Roman and European worshipers of 
their several deities after their various Faiths, finding 
their several deities one, in the one “Father in heaven,” 
to whom all hearts were lifted. Here the worshipers at 
all shrines found themselves alike obeying the sovereign 
Word of the gentle Teacher and Lord of all men who 
said, “After this manner pray ye: Our Father who art in 
the heavens, Hallowed be thy name!” It is remarkable 
that the “Our Father” was the only prayer used by the 
Parliament as its common act of worship from beginning 
to end; and also that instead of being used only as the 
Christian’s prayer, it was led in, on other occasions, once 
by Rabbi Hirsch, the Jew, once by Mozoomdar, the 
leader of the Brahmo-Somaj, and once by Dharmapala, 
the Buddhist. Another little but significant circum- 
stance connected with the uttering of this universal 
prayer is worth mentioning, as showing the broad catho- 
licity that characterized these meetings, and would brook 
nothing that savored of sectarian narrowness or dictation. 
When Cardinal Gibbons led in the prayer, he abruptly 
brought it to a close with the words, “Deliver us from 
evil, Amen!” thus, after the wont of the Roman Church, 
omitting the doxology. The great body of worshipers 
acquiesced in silent deference to the leader; but for once 
only; for when on a subsequent day Monsignore Seton 
led in the prayer and again stopped with an amen after 
the petition for deliverance, the great sea of voices rolled 
on unchecked in massive concert: “For thine is the 
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” 


40 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 

A word should be said about the audience, not only 
of its size but of the spirit that moved it. Of course 
it was largely composed of those of Christian faith and 
education, although doubtless there was a considerable 
number of Jews as well as of independent thinkers of 
all classes. The Columbus Hall seated four thousand 
and the adjoining "Washington Hall, used on occasions of 
the overflow meetings when the addresses had to be 
repeated by each speaker to a second audience, seated 
three thousand. The Columbus Hall was generally filled 
to completion, often leaving a vast audience to fill the 
neighboring room. On the closing night of the Parlia- 
ment both halls were filled to their utmost capacity with 
an audience numbering seven thousand people, while 
many thousands more were turned away. What was 
noticeable besides the close and earnest attention given 
to every speaker was the applause, as an indication of 
the popular sentiment there represented. But once was 
there an outcry of disapproval, and that was when the 
advocate of Mohammedanism uttered what was taken to 
be an approval of polygamy, when a cry of No! No! 
came from many sides. In general what may be called 
peculiar, sectarian or partisan utterances met with no 
favor; but when the great fundamental and vital truths 
of universal Religion were forcibly and earnestly pro- 
claimed the outburst of applause was spontaneous and 
enthusiastic, often prolonged and accompanied with 
cheers and the waving of handerchiefs. Especially was 
this noticeable at the conclusion of the beautiful benedic- 
tion with which the venerable and fatherly Archbishop 
of the Greek Church of Zante closed his scholarly and 
noble address on the position of the Greek Church in the 
progress of Religions, in which he implored the Divine 
blessing upon the Parliament, and upon the people of 
the United States. Direct and pertinent quotations from 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


41 


the Word almost always received the answer of the 
people’s approval, while the usual phraseology of Cal- 
vinism with its customary appeal to a blind and unreason- 
ing faith fell flat and ineffectual. If a Catholic dignitary 
went a little too far in asserting the strong authority of 
the Church’s dogma, as being the utterance of the Holy 
Ghost itself, the answer would be a kindly smile of 
amusement rather than the scowl of dissent, while none 
of the speakers received more hearty and tumultuous 
cries of assent and of thanks from this vast mingling 
of all sects and Churches, than did these same Roman 
Catholic leaders when they defended, as they did with 
the clearest logic and with the Bible as their only 
weapon, the great doctrines of the personality of God, 
the divinity of Christ, and the soul's immortality. If one 
might trust himself here to be in touch with the true 
pulse of humanity he would feel justified in two conclu- 
sions, namely, that theology, or the interest in Religion is 
not “ decadent” as some writers have been claiming, 
among the great masses of intelligent people, for such 
were those represented here; and, second, that the power 
of Religion to-day with the great Christian public lies in 
these two things: The letter of the holy Bible, and the 
name of Jesus Christ! 


IY 

CHRISTIAN ADDRESSES 

Among the papers by Christian speakers read before 
the Parliament, to even enumerate which, not to speak of 
giving their outline, would far exceed our present limits, 
those that seemed to me the most powerful and stimu- 
lating, as filled with the light and power of the Divine 
Word, were those on the subjects above named, namely, 

4 


42 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


the Personality of God, the Immortality of the Soul, the 
Divinity of the Scriptures and the Incarnation of God in 
Jesus Christ, and especially as presented by the follow- 
ing speakers: The Archbishop of New Zealand, Roman 
Catholic; the Rev. Dr. Momerie of London, Church of 
England; the Rev. Dr. Moxom of Boston, Independent; 
Bishop Keane of the Catholic University of America; 
Dr. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, 
and the Rev. Dr. George Dana Boardman of Philadelphia, 
Baptist. Another class of papers discussed subjects 
doctrinal and social, from the rationalistic and humani- 
tarian standpoint, but as they wandered away from the 
letter of the Word as their basis, they invariably lost 
their power, and while often winning the popular favor 
by the kindlinesss and liberality of their expressions, 
they failed to strike home to the seat of man’s inmost 
conviction and motive as do the words of holy Scripture, 
or those that are inspired by a faith in Divine revelation. 

In the course of the Parliament, which continued for 
seventeen days, there were read in Columbus Hall six 
papers from New Churchmen, each of them, we may 
safely say, before an audience of three thousand people, 
including the clear and strong declaration by the Rev. 
Mr. Mercer on the closing day, of the character and 
mission of the man Emanuel Swedenborg and his relation 
to the Church of the New Jerusalem, to which a vast 
audience listened and gave their applause. The other 
five papers were as follows: On “ The Soul and its Future 
Life,” by the Rev. S. M. Warren; on “The Divine 
Basis of the Cooperation of Men and Women,” by Mrs. 
Lydia F. Dickinson; on “The Nature and Degree of the 
Inspiration of the Christian Scriptures,” by the Rev. 
Frank Sewall; on “The Incarnation of God in Jesus 
Christ,” by the Rev. Julian K. Smyth; and on “Recon- 
ciliation Vital not Vicarious,” by the Rev. Theodore F. 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


43 


Wright. Of these papers it is not necessary that I should 
speak here as they are to appear in full in the following 
pages. Besides being listened to by the largest audiences 
ever addressed by New-Churcli speakers, these addresses 
were reported at length in the columns of the Chicago 
daily papers, and so reached immediately hundreds of 
thousands of readers. I shall, however, mention the cir- 
cumstances of the delivery of two of the papers as being 
peculiarly interesting. 

My own paper on the '‘Inspiration of the Christian 
Scriptures” was read on the same day with that of the 
Rev. Dr. Charles A, Briggs, recently of the Presbyterian 
Church, on “The Truth of the Bible,” and that of Mon- 
signore Seton of the Roman Catholic Church, on “The 
Catholic Church and the Bible.” On the morning of that 
day, on being introduced to the Rev. Dr. Briggs in the 
ante-room of the Parliament, before going upon the plat- 
form, I remarked to him that we were to speak on the 
same subject, but perhaps from different standpoints, I 
being a New- Churchman and holding to the teachings of 
Swedenborg, with which I supposed he was acquainted. 
“Why, of course,” he replied; “the Church has always 
held them; the symbolic language of the Bible has been 
recognized from the beginning; a revelation of the 
infinite truth must be a limitation and so involve imper- 
fections.” “But stop, Doctor,” said I, interrupting him, 
“Are you going to say all this in your paper ? I fear you 
will leave nothing for me!” “Oh, go on,” he said pleas- 
antly, “you will still have enough left to say!” In his 
paper Dr. Briggs pursued the well known argument that 
the Divine truth was in the Scriptures, but that they were 
not necessarily throughout the Divine truth, and practi- 
cally he left it to the judgment of every man to determine 
for himself what was Divine truth in the Scriptures and 
what was not. While the paper was everywhere reverent 


44 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


in tone and breathed a spirit of true spiritual regard for 
the Bible, still it failed as all such arguments fail, from not 
distinguishing between what the author calls the “errancy’ 
of Scripture and what the doctrines of the New Church 
describe as the “apparent” in distinction from the “real” 
truths of the Word. 

The paper of Monsignore Seton which followed was a 
scholarly and forcible assertion of the Roman Catholic 
position that the Scriptures derive their authority from 
the Church and not the reverse — since it was the Church 
which decreed the putting together of the various books 
of the Bible and pronounced on their authenticity 
or established what is called the Canon of Sacred 
Scripture. 

In the afternoon when my paper was read, the Rev. 
Dr. Boardman on introducing me as of the “New- Jeru- 
salem Church” remarked, “that since coming to this 
Parliament many of us are beginning to feel as if we 
had come to the New Jerusalem itself.” Before begin- 
ning my paper I remarked that if anything would justify 
me in presenting again a subject that had been so ably 
treated by the two speakers who had preceded me, it 
would be the fact that one important basis for the doc- 
trine of Bible inspiration had been strangely over- 
looked in all that had been offered. The first speaker 
had treated the subject of the inspiration of the Scrip- 
tures from the standpoint of the human reason; the 
second from the standpoint of the dogma of the Catholic 
Church, it remained to present the doctrine from the 
declaration of the Scriptures themselves, or from the 
authority of Him who is the Word incarnate. I then 
began my paper with the declaration of the Divine Canon 
of the Word as established by the Lord’s words: “All 
things must be fulfilled which were written in the law, 
the prophets and the Psalms concerning me,” and by the 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


45 


promise of the Holy Spirit which should “bring to the 
remembrance” of the Lord’s immediate followers “all the 
things which ho had said unto them” when on earth; and 
finally, to the command in the Apocalypse, “Write”! — and 
so I continued to present the doctrine not only of the 
Canon of the Word, but of its Divine dictation and its 
internal sense from the language of the Scriptures 
themselves. 

The paper of the Rev. Julian K. Smyth on “ The 
Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ,” followed that of the 
Right Rev. Bishop Keane of the Catholic University on 
the same subject. The latter set forth with great 
strength and beauty, and with earnest and affectionate 
delivery, the doctrine of the Lord’s diviaity as declared 
in the letter of the Gospel ; and appealed eloquently both 
to the reason, the faith and all the higher human senti- 
ments for recognition of the Lord Jesus as the true God, 
and true light and salvation of the world. Nothing of 
what is regarded as peculiar to ’Catholic doctrine or 
phraseology was here noticeable. All was Scriptural, 
strong, direct assertion of the great doctrine that the 
“Lord and the Father are one,” that “he that hath seen 
Him hath seen the Father.” 

When Mr. Smyth’s paper followed, to which those on 
the stage, including Bishop Keane, Monsignore Seton and 
others of various faiths, gave close attention, and besides 
emphasizing all the Scriptural testimony as to the 
supreme divinity of Jesus, entered into the explanation 
of the incarnation itself as a fact in nature as well as in 
Religion, and as capable of being rationally understood 
and accepted when seen from both its natural and its 
spiritual side, the true office of the New Church in the 
midst of the Christianity of to day received a new and 
happy illustration. The paper was most cordially 
received and applauded, and the head of the chief 


46 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


university of the Catholic Church in America was seen 
warmly congratulating the New- Church essayist as he 
sat down. 


V 

THE NEW-CHURCH PRESENTATION 

At the New- Church presentation meeting on Septem- 
ber 13th in Washington Hall, where the various religious 
bodies engaging in the Parliament held meetings for set- 
ting forth in fullness their distinctive denominational 
features and teaching, there was in attendance an audi- 
ence of perhaps three hundred people. Upon the plat- 
form, besides President Bonney and the Rev. Lewis P. 
Mercer and Miss Scammon as the chief presiding officers, 
there were present as distinguished visitors Mr. Mozoom- 
dar, the leader of the Brahmo Somaj of India; Miss 
Jeanne Serabji, an accomplished lady and a convert from 
the Parsi faith; the young African Prince of the Yeys, 
Momolu Massaquoi ; Dr. Carl von Bergen, delegate to the 
Parliament from Sweden; a professor from a college at 
Constantinople, and Mrs. Magnusen, a lady from Iceland, 
and Bishop Arnett, of the African Methodist Church. 
Besides the opening welcoming addresses and the 
responses from Mr. Mozoomdar, Dr. von Bergen and Miss 
Serabji, the essays read at this opening meeting were, 
one by the Rev. Frank Sewall on the “One Church and One 
Lord Through all the Ages,” and one by the Rev. Julian 
K. Smyth on “The Mission of the New- Church to the 
Christian Denominations.” As all these will appear in 
the following proceedings of the New-Church Congress I 
need not dwell upon them here, except to record that in 
Mr. Mozoomdar’ s address he stated that when both him- 
self and his great leader, Chunder Sen, were in London 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


47 


some twenty years ago, they learned much about the 
New Church and received large gifts of the Writings 
from the Swendenborg Society which they carried home 
with them, and which they had distributed extensively in 
India. He remarked also on the great doctrine of the 
symbolism of natural things as being especially con 
genial to the Oriental form of thought and worship. 

VI 

VOICES FROM THE ORIENT* 

Of the addresses made before the Parliament, from 
representatives of Churches or Religions abroad, I will 
mention only the following as having peculiarly 
impressed me, since it is not to give a history or general 
report of this Parliament, but only to record some of my 
own individual impressions that this paper is written. 
The very reverend Archbishop Dionysios Latas of the 
Greek Church, of the Island of Zante, gave a beautiful 
and impressive account of the position of the Greek 
nation, the Greek mind and learning as, in the Divine 
Providence, made the first receptacle of the Christian 
Faith and doctrine. In the course of his eloquent oration 
on the opening day, he uttered in the original Greek the 
address of Paul to the Athenians on Mars Hill, regarding 
their worship of the Unknown God and the declaration, 
“ Whom ye ignorantly worship Him do I declare unto 
you!” (Acts xvii : 23.) It seemed to me that here was 
really struck the keynote of the whole Parliament; the 
revelation in Christianity, not of a God and of a Religion 
to exterminate all others as hostile and opposed, but as 
only really revealing more fully the God whom all the 
world heretofore has been ignorantly worshiping. Said 
the venerable Archbishop: “Bethlehem, in Judea, gave 


48 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


the virgin mother of the infant Christ; but Greece gave 
the intellectual soil in which the new truth was to be 
sown and grow and bear fruit for the world.” In a con- 
versation which I enjoyed with this venerable speaker 
afterwards, I told him that this part of his address coin- 
cided with *what Swedenborg tells us of the necessity 
that the new will by which our fallen humanity must be 
regenerated, must be born in the intellectual part of the 
mind, now that the former good will has become wholly 
spoiled, and that it was gratifying to see that he recog- 
nized as providential this grand role which the Hel- 
lenic race had borne in the religious advancement of 
mankind. 

A number of papers were presented by Christian 
students of Oriental Faiths and sacred books, but they 
seemed hardly more in place than would have been Hindu 
or Mohammedan expositions of Christianity. It was 
noticeable, among the Christian papers read, how Calvin- 
ism shrank out of sight as the great banner of the God- 
Messiah and of his redemption was brought more and 
more to the front; and how the fissures and rents in the 
Christian body were everywhere covered up as far as 
possible, when it came to confronting the Religion of 
Christ with that of Buddha, or Confucius, or Mohammed, 
or Moses. The weakness of sectarianism, if never felt 
before, was manifest enough; but if Christians had not 
often felt it, the Oriental teachers were there to tell us of 
it. While never undertaking to define Christianity for us, 
much less to denounce it, these Hindu scholars and 
priests were not slow to reproach us for our infidelity or 
lack of piety, our proneness to schism and quarreling. 
“You profess to believe in Christ and to worship Him,” 
said Dharmapala standing in a pulpit in Chicago on a 
Sunday morning, “but you do not follow his teachings!” 
The most vociferous applause brought out from the 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


49 


audience in Columbus Hall was that which followed the 
bold declaration of Hirai, the representative of the 
Buddhism of Japan, to the effect that twenty years 
ago he headed a movement to exterminate Christian mis- 
sions in Japan; so much strife and cruelty and bloodshed 
were they causing in Japan through the violence done to 
the ancient religious sentiment of the people and the 
rivalry and jealousy of contending sects — “not that we 
would not have welcomed pure Christianity gladly, but 
these warring and peace -disturbing Christian sects were 
a source of constant evil!” The Buddhist’s reverence 
for life, kindness to animals, love of contemplation and 
interior elevation of mind were contrasted with the 
cruelty of flesh -eating Christians, their impiety, gross- 
ness and worldliness. “Your slaughter houses in Chi- 
cago,” said Mr. Mozoomdar, “are a sight to make 
humanity shudder!” A Mohammedan, in his earnest plea 
for the recognition of the moral excellences of the Mos- 
lem Religion, declared that polygamy was no part of it, 
that the Mohammedans far exceeded in their piety and 
reverence, their personal cleanliness and social purity, 
and their abstinence from intoxicating drinks, the major- 
ity of Christians. The eloquent and large-hearted 
Rabbi Gottheil dwelt on the grandeur of Moses, on the 
great moral foundations for which all Religion and 
indeed all society are indebted to the law he brought 
from Sinai, and pleaded the words of the dying Jesus for 
a spirit of forgiveness and forbearance toward those who 
offend from overzeal when “they know not what they do!” 
The poet-souled representatives from Cilicia recited the 
songs of Armenian captivity, and pleaded for our sym- 
pathy for his people on the one hand oppressed with the 
combined tyrannies of Turk, Russian and Persian, and 
on the other beset by the ignorant and narrow-minded 
Christian missionaries who came to them, the earliest 


50 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


kingdom converted to Christianity in the days of the 
apostles, pretending to show them what Christianity is 
and exhibiting only the ignorance and the bigoted zeal 
of selfish sectarianism. The system of Confucius, the great 
moral teacher of the Chinese, was set forth in a prize 
essay sent from the Chinese Government. Reverence for 
parents and ancestors, and the search for wisdom as the 
highest good, are its distinguishing notes. The young 
African prince, on hearing a statement of the New- 
Church doctrine of the Lord said, “That Being you 
describe is the God we Africans have been worshiping 
all the while. ,, A young and earnest Japanese scholar, 
now pursuing his studies in this country, after describing 
the four Religions which prevail in Japan said, “Such are 
the remnants of the past in four Religions of a country 
which yet has no one Religion she can call her own, but 
is ready and is waiting for one!” That coming Religion 
must be the Christian Religion; but it cannot be the 
Christianity of the sects. “I was baptized,” he said “by 
a Congregationalist missionary, but I never meant in so 
doing to be baptized a Congregationalist, but a Chris- 
tian. What we want in Japan is not Methodism, nor 
Presbyterianism, nor Protestantism, nor Catholicism, but 
the pure Religion of Jesus Christ and of His Word! 
Where shall we find it?” 


VII 

SOCIAL AND PERSONAL INCIDENTS 

The social occasions which occurred during the Parlia- 
ment, in the private and public receptions given to the 
delegates, were of unusual interest as affording an oppor- 
tunity for personal acquaintance and conversation with 
the foreign visitors. It was on these occasions, too, that 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


51 


the speech of the Oriental guests freed from the formali- 
ties of the stage broke out into the figures, the poetry, 
the fables, the song even, which characterizes their lan- 
guage and literature. 

It was on one of these occasions that the Armenian 
sang the lament of his people over their captivity and 
their longing for freedom ; that the Hindu told the tale of 
the Frog in the Well, contented with the narrow abode 
so long as he knew nothing wider; and Mozoomdar told 
the beautiful tale of the bethrothal customs of the ancient 
Hindus when the bride chose and crowned with laurel 
her future husband out of all the aspirants to her hand; 
and Prince Serge Wolkonsky told the story of the 
stranger guests at a heavenly banquet; and finally that 
the Archbishop of Zante gave utterance to his admiration 
for America and for the Parliament in saying : “When I 
stood in the Court of Honor at the World’s Fair I 
thought — the ancient times are returned and I am on the 
Acropolis at Athens before the Parthenon, but on coming 
into this Parliament and into this assemblage I thought 
— we are again at Olympia!” 

It was on one of these occasions that I enjoyed a con- 
versation with Nagarkar, the thoughtful and scholarly 
follower of the Brahmo-Somaj, who said on my mention- 
ing Swedenborg, “Oh, yes, and there is somebody now 
distributing the writings of Swedenborg in India” — and 
with Professor Bonet-Maury of Paris, a friend of 
Charles Wagner the author of the noble book “Youth” 
now being so widely read in this country, who expressed 
a warm interest in the New Church desiring especially to 
learn more of it in this country, being already familiar 
with the locality and work of our little Church in Paris: 
“How could it be,” said he, “that I should not know 
Swedenborg, being a professor in a school of theology.” 


52 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


Standing in a group of friends one evening with 
Mozoomdar I remarked on introducing the others, “ We 
are all New-Cliurchmen!” “ Yes,” he replied, “and I feel 
that our movement in India is in very close sympathy 
with the New Church. Will you not come and hear me 

on Sunday when I am to preach in Church on the 

Oriental Christ?” Thanking him I asked him: “But 
how do you regard Christ ? — as one of a series ? ” “As the 
Only,” he answered, and our conversation was interrupted. 

It was at a private evening gathering that Mr. 
Gandhi told us of the Religion of “Jain,” that is, of the 
followers of “ the Conqueror.” “ The Conqueror of 
what?” “Of their own passions.” He spoke of their 
belief in individual immortality, in distinction from other 
Buddhists, of their sacred regard for chastity, mercy to 
animals and the interior life — and yet he said, “We 
know no God:” while as a matter of fact their temples of 
worship are among the most imposing structures in all 
India! 

To the youthful and happy- faced Brahman monk, 
when I remarked upon that ancient Religion being rep- 
resented by so young and happy a votary he replied, “We 
are not all happy in India; there is sorrow there yet. 
* * But why should we not be happy if we believe in 

eternal goodness? For I accept all, and I receive all, 
and believe all, knowing that all evil is only the waiting 
good and that good will come of all in the end!” 

The most memorable of all these personal interviews, 
however, was that which I had the honor of enjoying at 
a quiet Sunday evening tea at the house of President 
and Mrs. Bonney, with the Greek Archbishop Latas of 
Zante, who was accompanied by his deacon attendant, 
the other guests being Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant of 
London, and the Rev. Mr. Mercer. The archbishop 
wore his rich ceremonial dress with the high black beretta 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


53 


familiar in Russian pictures, and his heavy gold and 
jeweled sacred medallions, the insignia of rank bestowed 
by the King of Greece. We all stood at table while 
with uplifted hands and fervent voice he implored the 
blessing, using the Greek language of his Church’s 
ritual. In the evening our conversation turned on the 
relation of the Hellenic mind to the introduction of 
Christianity and on the present relations of the Eastern 
and Western Churches of Christendom. Then we turned 
to music, and there followed a pleasant antiphon between 
the earliest and the latest of the Christian Churches, the 
archbishop and his deacon standing and singing rever- 
ently and with the deep resonance and the sweet har- 
mony which characterizes the ritual music of the Greek 
Church, passages from their hymns and responses includ- 
ing a beautiful “Agios” (“Sanctus”); to which Mrs. 
Ormiston Chant and Miss Bonney and myself responded 
in hymns from our New- Church Book of Worship, 
including the hymn attributed to Swedenborg: 

“Jn boundless mercy, gracious Lord, appear.” 
Especially did the hymn, 

“Jesus, Lover of my Soul,” 

please our venerable guest; so much so that he asked for 
its repetition, and his deacon stood with us at the piano 
and lent his rich voice to our harmony in singing it. 

Before the evening was over Mr. Mercer having left 
us to attend the evening service, the archbishop, taking 
me aside, said to me with much earnestness, “Tell me 
about your Church, the ‘New Jerusalem!’ What is it? 
How do you differ from us ?” In a few words I endeav- 
ored to give him the fundamental ideas of our doctrine of 
the Lord and of the Word, and, at the close of our inter- 
view; with a kind fatherly touch on my shoulder he said, 
“And so we are all Christians!” Later as our conversa- 
tion was continued in the carriage that took us home he 


54 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


said to me, “It seems to me the effect of your teaching 
will be to spiritualize the Christian Churches.” On my 
alighting at our Church door on Yan Buren street, just 
as the evening congregation was coming out, he expressed 
great interest in the building, saying that on some more 
convenient occasion he hoped he might come and visit it. 
In return for his autograph card he accepted from me a 
souvenir copy of Mr. Mercer’s admirable little book on 
“Swedenborg and the New Christian Church.” 

A copy of this book I have since learned has been 
sent to every foreign delegate to the Parliament of 
Religions. 


VIII 

THE CLOSING SCENE 

The scene on the closing night of the Parliament, 
which I did not myself witness, must have been an 
impressive and memorable one. The audience numbered 
in the two halls seven thousand or more people. In the 
Washington Hall the Rev. Lewis P. Mercer presided and 
introduced the speakers which President Bonney had 
introduced first in the Columbus Hall. It was here that 
the Apollo Club Chorus of eight hundred voices sang, 
in the course of the evening, Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus 
from the “Messiah,” including that triumphant and 
majestic strain: 

The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our 
Lord and of his Christ: and He shall reign forever and ever, 
King of kings, and Lord of lords! 

With what sublime significance those words must 
have resounded to the ears of Christians and Gentiles! 
The venerable Dr. George Dana Boardman came forward 
and said: 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


55 


Fathers of the contemplative East, Sons of the executive 
West, behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to 
dwell together in unity! (Applause.) The New Jerusalem, the 
city of God, is descending; heaven and earth chanting the eternal 
Hallelujah! 

The Right Rev. Bishop Keane, Rector of the Catholic 
University of America, said, speaking for the Catholic 
Church: 

Men and Brethren, whether of the race of Abraham, or 
children of Shem, or of Ham or of Japheth; I have stood at the 
side of my Master when, on Mount Tabor, Moses and Elias 
bowed down to Him! Friends and Brethren, Come to the light! 
Come to the transfiguration! Lift up your gates, ye princes. 
Let the King of glory come! Let Him take possession. Before 
Him may every human being bow. Woe to the man that would 
have an idea of his own, an ambition of his own, that he would 
put in place of the Royal supremacy! May He come! May He 
rule with the scepter of peace and love! May we all bowjtogether ; 
and may he reign forever and ever! 

IX 

IMPRESSIONS AS TO THE PROBABLE RESULTS OF THE 
PARLIAMENT 

It remains to say a few words about the probable 
results of this Parliament. And first as to its results to 
the New -Church organization, since all its other results 
are to effect in some way that New Church that is grow- 
ing in the inner spiritual world among men everywhere, 
and is to embrace in its final perfection all phases of the 
good and of the true. 

1. The Parliament, together with the Fair, has 
brought some knowledge of the New Church and of its 
teachings to vast numbers of people who but for this 
would have remained unaware of its existence. Thous- 
ands have listened to these New- Church addresses, many 
more thousands have seen them noticed or reported in 


56 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


the press; the World’s Fair souvenir copies of Mr. Giles’ 
book on the “Nature of Spirit,” and of Mr. Mercer’s 
little books on “The African and the True Christian 
Religion,” and on “Swedenborg and the New Christian 
Church,” have been carried away by many thousands of 
people both from the New- Church exhibit at the Fair, 
from the Church vestibule and from the Art Institute 
where the Parliament was held; so large a number as 
nine hundred copies having been taken away from the 
Fair exhibit in a single day. The Sunday congregations 
at the Church have been unusually large during the 
whole summer. Many of the foreign visitors to the 
Parliament have made special inquiries, or obtained a 
judicious selection of the literature of the Church to take 
away for study. Among these are Nagarkar of Bombay, 
Prince Massaquoi of Africa, the Archimandrite of Syria, 
Professor Bonet-Maury of Paris, and a young Japanese 
student who has already some knowledge of the New 
Church. At the Congress on behalf of African coloniz- 
ation, Mr. Mercer came in contact with a number of 
Afro-Americans of marked ability and intelligence, 
preachers and college professors who showed a deep 
interest in the teaching of the Church regarding the 
Africans. There can be no doubt but that the Parlia- 
ment will stimulate inquiry, at least, in many circles and 
lands about the new system of Christian theology and 
philosophy which was brought so prominently to the 
front in Chicago under the mysterious but interesting 
name of the “New Jerusalem.” 

2. Of the effect produced by the Parliament on the 
Christian and the non- Christian bodies at large in 
mutual enlightenment and mutual affiliation and charity, 
an idea can best be given perhaps by quoting a few 
of the utterances brought out in the brief farewell 
speeches of the closing night. 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


57 


Among the first to speak was Mr. Mozoomdar, of the 
Brahmo-Somaj, who said in the course of a fervent and 
eloquent speech: 

The kingdom of heaven is, to my mind, a vast concentric 
circle with various circumferences of doctrines, authorities and 
organizations from outer to inner, from inner to inner stifi, until 
heaven and earth become one. The outermost circle is belief in 
God and the love of man. In the tolerance, kindliness, good- 
will, patience and wisdom which have distinguished the work of 
this Parliament, that outermost circle of the kingdom of heaven 
has been described. We have influenced vast numbers of men 
and women of all opinions, and the influence will spread and 
spread. So many human unities drawn within the magnetic 
circle of spiritual sympathy cannot but influence and widen the 
various denominations to which they belong. In the course of 
time, those inner circles must widen also till the love of man 
and the love of God are perfected in one Church, one God, one 
salvation. . . And now farewell. For once in history all 

Religions have made their peace, all nations have called each 
other brothers, and their representatives have for seventeen days 
stood up morning after* morning to pray Our Father, the 
universal Father of all in heaven. His will has been done so 
far, and in the great coming future may that blessed will be done 
further and further, forever and ever. (Applause.) 

Prince Serge Wolkonsky said: 

I do not know whether many have learned, in the sessions of 
this Parliament, what respect of God is, but I know that no one 
will leave the Congress without having learned what respect of 
man is. . . I will congratulate the Congress, in the name of 

the whole humanity, if those who have attended sessions have 
realized that it is a crime to be astonished when we see that 
another human being is a man like ourselves. 

Mr. Hirai of Japan, who was the first to thrill a 
Christian audience through and through, to use the 
language of Dr. Barrows, as he told us of the wrongs 

so-called Christian civilization had committed in Japan, 

• • 

said: 

We cannot but admire the tolerant forbearance and com- 
passion of the people of the civilized West. You are pioneers in 


58 


PARLIAMENT OP RELIGIONS 


human history. You have achieved an assembly of the world’s 
Religions, and we believe your next step will be toward the ideal 
goal of this Parliament, the realization of international justice. 

Mr. Pung Quang Yu, special Commissioner from the 
Chinese Government to the Religious Parliament said: 

I have a favor to ask of all the religious people of America, 
and that is that they will treat, hereafter, all my countrymen just 
as they have treated me. I shall be a hundred times more grate- 
ful to them for the kind treatment of my countrymen than of 
myself. . . Christ teaches us that it is not enough to love 

one’s brethren only. I am sure that all religious people will not 
think this request too extravagant. 

Shibata, the high priest of the ancient Shinto Relig- 
ion of Japan, arrayed in rich ceremonial robes and a 
headdress so strange to our eyes as to be almost 
grotesque and yet dignified with the genuine dignity of 
the wearer, said: 

I, who made acquaintance with you only yesterday, have to 
part with you to-day, though reluctantly. This Parliament of 
Religion is the most remarkable event in history, and it is the 
first honor in my life to have the privilege of appearing before 
you, to pour out my humble idea whioh was so well accepted by 
you all. You like me, but I think it is not the mortal Shibata 
that you like, but you like the immortal idea of universal 
brotherhood. What I wish to do is, to assist you in carrying out 
the plan of forming the universal brotherhood under the one 
roof of truth. You know unity is power. I, who can speak no 
language but Japanese, may help you in crowning that grand 
project with success. To come here I had many obstacles to 
overcome, many struggles to make. You must not think I 
represent all Shintoism. I only represent my own Shinto sect. 
But who dares to destroy universal fraternity ? So long as the 
sun and moon continue to shine, all friends of truth must be 
willing to fight courageously for this great principle. I do not 
know as I shall ever see you again in this life, but our souls 
have been so pleasantly united here that I hope they may be 
again united in the life hereafter. Now, I pray that eight million 
deities protecting the beautiful cherry tree country of Japan 
may protect you and your Government forever, and with this I 
bid you good-bye. 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


59 


The tall and gentle- voiced Dharmapala of Ceylon, 
then said, on behalf of four hundred and seventy-five 
millions of his co-Religionists, “followers of the gentle 
Lord Buddha Gautama,” — “Peace, blessings and 
salutations: 

Brethren: — This Congress of Religions has achieved a 
stupendous work in bringing before you the representatives of 
the Religions and philosophies of the East. The Committee on 
Religious Congresses has realized the Utopian idea of the poet 
and the visionary. By the wonderful genius of two men — Mr. 
Bonney and Dr. Barrows — a beacon light has been erected on 
the platform of the Chicago Parliament of Religions to guide 
the yearning souls after truth. . . And you, my brothers and 

sisters, born in this land of freedom, you have learned from your 
brothers of the far East their presentation of the respective 
religious systems they follow. You have listened with commend- 
able patience to the teachings of the all-merciful Buddha 
through his humble followers. During his earthly career of 
forty-five years he labored in emancipating the human mind 
from religious prejudices, and teaching a doctrine which has 
made Asia mild. By the patient and laborious researches of the 
men of science you are given to enjoy the fruits of material 
civilization, but this civilization by itself finds no praise at the 
hands of the great naturalists of the day. Learn to think with- 
out prejudice, love all beings for love’s sake, express your con- 
victions fearlessly, lead a life of purity and the sunlight of truth 
will illuminate you. If theology and dogma stand in your way 
in the search of truth, put them aside. Be earnest and work out 
your own salvation with diligence; and the fruits of holiness will 
be yours. 

The Brahman monk, Suami Vive Kananda said, after 
declaring that his ideal of a universal Religion was that 
each distinct faith must assimilate the others and yet 
preserve its own individuality and grow, like the seed, 
according to its own law of growth : 

If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the 
world it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity 
and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any Church in 
the world, and that every system has produced men and women 


60 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence if 
anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own and the 
destruction of the others I pity him from the bottom of my 
heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every 
Religion would soon be written, in spite of their resistance: 
“Help and Not Fight,” “Assimilation and Not Destruction,” 
“Harmony and Peace and not Dissension.” 

Virchand Gandhi, the Jainist secretary from Bombay, 
after telling the story of the Elephant and the Blind Men 
said: 

Brothers and Sisters: — I entreat you, I entreat you to hear 
the moral of this story and learn to examine the various relig- 
ious systems from all standpoints. 

The young Prince Momolu Massaquoi of the Yey 
territory, Africa, was received with applause, and speak- 
ing, as if in the language of prophetic inspiration, said: 

There is an important relationship which Africa sustains to 
this particular gathering. Nearly one thousand nine hundred 
years ago, at the great dawn of the Christian morning, we saw 
benighted Africa opening her doors to the infant Savior Jesus 
Christ. . . The very atmosphere seems pregnant with an 

indefinable, inexpressible something — something too solemn for 
human utterance — something I dare not attempt to express* 
Previous to this gathering the greatest enmity existed among 
the world’s Religions. To-night — I dare net speak as one seeing 
visions, or dreaming dreams— but this night it seems that the 
world’s Religions, instead of striking one against another, have 
come together in amicable deliberation and have created a last- 
ing and congenial spirit among themselves. May the coming 
together of these wise men result in the full realization of the 
general Parliament of God, the brotherhood of man, and the 
consecration of souls to the service of God. 

Another to feel this presence of a Pentecostal spirit 
deeply moving the whole assembly was the Rev. Dr. 
George T. Candlin, a Christian missionary from China, 
who presented perhaps the best summary of the enlight- 
ening results of the Parliament in the following words: 

As a missionary I anticipate that it will make a new era of 
missionary enterprise and missionary hope. If it does not it 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


61 


will not be your fault, and let those take the blame who make it 
otherwise. Very sure I am that at least one missionary, who 
counts himself the humblest member of this noble assembly* 
will carry through every day of work, through every hour of 
effort on till the sun of life sets on the completion of his task, 
the strengthening memory and uplifting inspiration of this 
Pentecost. . . In this school you have learned what no other 

town or city in the world yet knows. The conventional idea of 
religion which obtains among Christians the world over is that 
Christianity is true, all other religions false; that Christianity 
is of God, while other religions are of the devil; or else, with a 
little spice of moderation, that Christianity is a revelation from 
heaven, while other religions are manufactures of men. You 
know better, and with clear light and strong assurance can 
testify that there may be friendship instead of antagonism 
between religion and religion, that so surely as God is our com- 
mon Father, our hearts alike have yearned for Him, and our 
souls in devoutest moods have caught whispers of grace dropped 
from his throne. Then this is Pentecost, and behind is the con- 
version of the world. 

Bishop Arnett of the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church, said among other things the following: 

There is one thing that we have all agreed upon; that is 
that the source of the true, beautiful and the good is spirit, love 
and light of infinite power, wisdom and goodness. . . Another 

good of this convention: It has taught us a lesson that while we 
have truth on our side we have not had all the truth; while we 
have had theory we have not had all the practice; and the 
strongest criticism we have received was not as to our doctrines 
or methods, but as to our practice not being in harmony with 
our own teachings and with our own doctrines. 

Introduced as representing “the five millions of Method- 
ists in the United States,” the Rev. Dr. Frank Bristol, 
on our indebtedness to Oriental visitors, said: 

They have brought to us fragrant flowers from the gardens 
of Eastern Faiths, rich gems from the old mines of great philoso- 
phers, and we are richer to-night from their contributions of 
thought and particularly from our contact with them in spirit. 
. . A distinguished writer has said, it is always morn some- 

where in the world. The time hastens when a greater thing will 


62 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


be said — ’tis always morn everywhere in the world. The dark- 
ness has passed, the day is at hand, and with it will come the 
greater humanity, the universal brotherhood. 

Bishop Keane of the Catholic University of America 
said: 

We leave here. We will go to our homes. We will go to 
the olden ways. Friends, will we not look back to this scene of 
union and weep because separation still continues? But will we 
not pray that there may have been planted here a seed that 
will grow to union wide and perfect? Oh, friends, let us pray 
for this. It is better for us to be one. If it were not better for 
us to be one than to be divided, our Lord and God would not 
have prayed to His Father that we might all be one as He and 
the Father are one. Oh, let us pray for unity, and taking up 
the glorious strains we have listened to to-night, let us, morning, 
noon and night cry out: “Lead, kindly light; lead from all 
gloom; lead from all darkness; lead from all imperfect light of 
human opinion; lead to the fullness of the light.” 

The Jewish rabbi, Emil Hirsch, spoke of the opening 
of the Parliament as falling on the same day as that on 
which 

The trumpet, in our ritual, announces the birth of a new 
religious year; and here in this Parliament at that very moment, 
was blazoned forth the clearer blast heralding for all humanity 
the dawn of a new era. . . . According to an old rabbinical 

practice, friends among us never part without first discussing 
some problem of religious life. Our whole Parliament has been 
devoted to such discussion, and we take hence, in parting, with 
us the richest treasures of religious instruction ever laid before 
man. Thus the old Talmudic promise will be verified in us that, 
when even three come together to study God’s law, his Shekinah 
abides with them. 

With the following beautiful and touching words, Dr. 
Barrows bade farewell to the visitors from the Gentile 
lands: 

. . . Christian America sends her greetings through you to 

all mankind. We cherish a broadened sympathy, a higher 
respect, a truer tenderness to the children of our common Father 
in all lands, and as the story of this Parliament is read in the 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


63 


cloisters of Japan, by the rivers of Southern Asia, amid the uni- 
versities of Europe and in the isles of all the seas, it is my 
prayer that non-Christian readers may, in some measure, dis- 
cover what has been the source and strength of that Faith in 
Divine fatherhood and human brotherhood which, embodied in 
an Asiatic peasant who was the Son of God and made divinely 
potent through Him, is clasping the globe with bands of heavenly 
light. . . I desire that the last words which I speak to this 
Parliament shall be in the name of Him to whom I owe life and 
truth and hope and all things, who reconciles all contradictions, 
pacifies all antagonisms, and who, from the throne of His 
heavenly kingdom, directs the serene and unwearied omnipo- 
tence of redeeming love — Jesus Christ the Savior of the world. 

President Bonney in reviewing the general conduct 
of the Assembly said: 

What men deemed impossible, God has finally wrought. The 
Religions of the world have actually met in a great and impos- 
ing assembly; they have conferred together on the vital ques- 
tions of life and immortality in a frank and friendly spirit, and 
now they part in peace with many warm expressions of mutual 
affection and respect. The laws of the Congress forbidding con- 
troversy or attack have, on the whole, been wonderfully observed. 
The exceptions are so few that they may well be expunged from 
the record and from the memory. They even served the useful 
purpose of timely warnings against the tendency to indulge in 
intellectual conflict. If an unkind hand threw a firebrand into 
the assembly, let us be thankful that a kinder hand plunged it in 
the waters of forgiveness and quenched its flame. If some 
Western warrior, forgetting for the moment that this was a 
friendly conference and not a battlefield, uttered his war cry, 
let us rejoice, our Orient friends, that a kinder spirit answered: 
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they say.” No 
system of faith or worship has been compromised by thiB 
friendly conference; no apostle of any Religion has been placed 
in a false position by any act of this Congress. The knowledge 
here acquired will be carried by those who have gained it as 
precious treasure to their respective countries, and will there, in 
freedom and according to reason, be considered, judged and 
applied as they shall deem right. And now, farewell. A thous- 
and congratulations and thanks for the co-operation and aid of 
all who have contributed to the glorious results which we 


64 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


celebrate this night. Henceforth the Religions of the world will 
make war, not on each other, but on the giant evils that afflict 
mankind. Henceforth let all throughout the world who worship 
God and love their fellow-men join in the anthem of the angels: 

“Glory to God in the highest, 

Peace on earth, good will among men!” 

X 

THE TRUE CHURCH UNIVERSAL 

With the memory of these farewell words of love and 
benediction, mutually spoken among the Religions of 
mankind, lingering in his mind, let the New-Churchman 
now turn to those descriptions of the true universal 
Church of God, contained in such passages of the Writ- 
ings as “ Athanasian Creed,” 71-75; “Sacred Scripture,” 
104-112, 116, 117, and “Heaven and Hell,” 318-328, 
and will he not feel a new sense of what is here stated, 
as actual living reality, as an experience which has 
become tangibly and visibly demonstrated to us? Will 
he not feel that here is an actual result of the illumina- 
tion produced in the spiritual world by means of the last 
judgment there, the opening of the Word in its internal 
sense and the shining down through all realms of angels 
and spirits, even of those immediately associated with 
the various races of man on earth, of the light that 
proceeds from the glorified and Divine humanity of 
Jesus Christ, to whom is directed really, even though 
unconsciously, the gaze of all true seekers after God, 
and to whom ascends the worship of all sincere wor- 
shipers of God under whatever name? For in these 
passages we read that: 

The Lord has provided that all shall have some kind of 
Religion, and thence acknowledge a Divine Being and possess 
interior life. . . Heaven is in man, and they who have heaven 

in themselves go to heaven after deatfh. It is “heaven in man” 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


65 


to acknowledge a Divine Being and to be led by Him. The 
precepts of every Religion have relation to worship, for they 
teach in what manner the Divine Being is to be worshiped so as 
to render man acceptable to Him. . . The Gentiles live a 

moral life as well as Christians, and many of them better; and 
moral life for the sake of the Divine Being is also spiritual life, and 
he who leads such a life is led by the Divine. The Gentiles who 
have lead a moral life and lived in obedience, subordination and 
mutual charity according to their religious belief, and who have 
received thence something of conscience, are accepted in the 
other life and are then instructed in the goods and truths of 
Faith with solicitious attention. Unlike many Christians the 
Gentiles when they hear, in the other life, that God was made 
man and then manifested himself to the world, they instantly 
acknowledge it and adore the Lord saying, that God has indeed 
manifested himself, because He is the God of heaven and earth, 
and because the human race is His. It is a Divine truth that 
without the Lord there is no salvation, but this is to be under- 
stood as implying that there is no salvation but from the Lord. 
There are many earths in the universe, and all are full of 
inhabitants, yet scarcely any of them know that the Lord assumed 
humanity in our earth; and yet, since they adore the Divine 
Being under a human form, they are accepted and led by the 
Lord. 

There are no wise men now like those who lived in ancient 
times, more particularly in the Ancient Church, which extended 
over a great part of Asia, and from which Religion was com- 
municated to many Gentile nations. . . But the Gentiles of 

the present day, while not so wise as the ancients, are neverthe- 
less many of them simple in heart, and such of them as have 
lived in mutual charity receive wisdom in the other life. 

Describing the state of a certain Gentile spirit, 
Swedenborg says 

I perceived that the interior affection of his worship was 
much more holy than that of Christians; in the state in which 
he was he was capable of imbibing all the doctrines of Faith, and 
of receiving them with interior affection; because he possessed 
the compassion which springs from love, and because his ignor- 
ance was full of innocence; and when these principles are pres- 
ent all the doctrines of faith are received, as it were, spontan- 
eously and with joy. He was afterwards received amongst the 
angels. 


66 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


The Church of the Lord is spread over the whole globe and 
is thus universal; it includes all who live in the good of charity 
according to their religious belief; and the Church, where the 
Word is and where the Lord is known by the Word, is to those 
who are out of the Church as the heart and lungs in man from 
which all the viscera and members of the body derive life accord- 
ing to their forms, situations and combinations. (H. H. 318, 328.) 

Every man acquainted with the two means of conjunction 
between God and man, embodied in the two tables of the 
covenant found with every nation which possesses a Religion, 
and who lives according to these principles in agreement with 
the moral and civil law, is saved; thus every one in his own 
Religion, whether he be a Christian, a Mahometan, or a heathen; 
and, what is more, the man who embodies these principles in his 
life, from a religious motive, although in the world he knows 
nothing either of the Lord, or of the Word, is in that state with 
regard to his spirit that from his will he desires to be wise; he is 
therefore after death trained by the angels, and acknowledges 
the Lord; he also receives truths according to his affection and 
becomes an angel. . . Every one of this description resembles 

a man who dies an infant, for he is led by the Lord, and brought 
up by the angels. Those who have no religious worship, in con- 
sequence of their being born in this or that country, are also 
trained after death like infants, and according to their civil and 
moral life, they receive the means of salvation. I have seen such 
persons, and at first they had not the appearance of men; but 
afterwards I saw them as men, and heard them speak sensibly in 
accordance with the commandments of the decalogue. To train 
such persons is the inmost joy of the angels. Hence it is evi- 
dent that the Lord provides that every man should be capable of 
being saved. (Ath. Cr. 72.) 

The Lord provides for every nation a universal medium of 
salvation. For in every Religion a man is acquainted with the 
evils and the falsities arising from them which are to be shunned, 
and when he shuns them he becomes acquainted with the goods 
which are to be done, and the truths which are to be believed. 
The medium exists in all its fullness with Christians; it exists 
also, although not in fullness, with the Mahometans and the 
heathen. All other points which form the distinction between 
them are either matters of ceremony, in themselves indifferent, 
or they are goods and truths which may either be done and 
believed or not, and man yet be saved. In each case the man 


THINGS SEEN AND HEARD 


67 


sees the quality of goods and truths after evils are removed; the 
Christian seeing it from the Word, the Mahometan from the 
Koran, and the heathen from his Religion. The Christian sees 
from the Word that God is one, that the Lord is the Savior of 
the world. . . The Mahometan sees from the Koran that God 
is one, that the Lord is the Son of God. . . The heathen sees 

from his Religion that there is a God, that He is to be hallowed 
and worshiped. . . And because most of the heathen perceive 

God as a man, and the God-man is the Lord, therefore after 
death when they are trained by the angels, they acknowledge the 
Lord and afterward receive truths from Him of which they were 
before ignorant. (Ath. Cr. No. 73.) 

XI 

THE TWELVE GATES OF ONE PEARL 

In my own mind as I witnessed these proceedings of 
the Parliament there was constantly sounding, as the 
keynote of all that was uttered, these Divine words from 
the Apocalypse: “ On the east three gates; on the north 
three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west 
three gates.” And I felt that the real catholicity of the 
New Jerusalem was a truth the broadest minds among us 
had hardly yet grasped. Not that doctrine and a recog- 
nition of divinely revealed truth was not necessary, nor 
that the gates to the holy city were not all of one pearl, 
but that these gates are not all on one side, and conse- 
quently are not all opened to the same quarter or genus 
among mankind; but, as the extracts above clearly show, 
men are to be introduced even to the knowledge of the 
Lord himself, by means known only to the Divine mercy 
and the Divine Providence, and adapted to their various 
religious capacities and circumstances. The gates are 
not all on one side although they are all of pearl and 
each is of the one pearl which is truly the special knowl- 
edge of the Lord vouchsafed to those who enter on that 
side. 


68 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


And the question occurred to me whether perhaps 
the most important practical result to Christians of this 
Parliament of Religions may not be a consequent recog- 
nition by Christians of this fact that all are not to enter 
the holy city of God’s perfected Church and kingdom by 
the same gates by which Christians or Europeans have 
entered in. This as affecting the whole scheme of 
Christian foreign missions. And as affecting Christians 
at home, the further recognition of the truth that mere 
possession of truth concerning the Lord does not itself 
ensure a higher or securer peace in heaven, unless there 
be that practical obedience to it which is described in 
the above extracts as “being led by the Lord.” “For 
many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit 
down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the king- 
dom of heaven: but the children of the kingdom shall be 
cast out.” (Matt, viii: 11, 12.) 

XII 

THE USE OF THE PARLIAMENT 

Finally to consider the supreme subject, the use of 
the Parliament of Religions, shall we not regard this as 
equivalent, on the spiritual plane, to the use of the 
World’s Columbian Exposition itself on the material and 
natural plane ? Or is it not rather an integral and most 
essential part of this latter use itself, being its own 
interior and higher degree. The motto of the World’s 
Congress Auxiliary was, “Not Things but Men;” but 
this motto told truly the meaning, not of the Congress 
alone, but of the entire Exposition. The material 
exhibits were really of no interest or use except as they 
exhibited men, either in their relation to nature or to 
their fellow-man, or to those Divine ideals which alone 


THINGS SEEN AND HEAED. 


69 


lead man up from nature to spirit and to God. To 
know things truly we must know the men who made 
them, or for whom they were made, and to know men in 
their essential and differential qualities; to know the 
conditions that surround them and the ideals that inspire 
them was the great and sublime use this Congress 
Auxiliary had in view. To fear the knowledge that such 
a coming together and such a conference of minds would 
reveal, would be like fearing the results of a World’s 
Fair upon the industrial and commercial interests of the 
world. If the attitude of Christian missions has been 
hitherto “ protection by exclusion,” the Parliament of 
Religions will have its use in correcting that mistake and 
in opening men’s eyes to the sublime fact, hitherto so 
little apprehended even by the wisest of human prophets, 
that, namely, of the Maximus Homo, the Grand Man, 
which is the organism not of one civilization, one Religion 
alone, but of all combined into a reflection of the Divine 
form of the Maker. Here each member, however small 
and seemingly insignificant, bears its indispensable part 
in the universal kingdom of heaven for which the human 
race is created and in which the perfections of Deity are 
reflected. For, “All things created by the Lord are 
uses: and they are uses in the order, degree and respect 
in which they have relation to man and by man to the 
Lord their Creator.” (D. L. W. 327.) 


CHAPTER III 


PAPERS PRESENTED BY NEW- 
CHURCHMEN IN THE 
PARLIAMENT 

It was a principle accepted in the General Committee 
that the Denominational Congresses should set forth the 
distinctive truths held and taught by each Religion, but 
that in the great union meetings known as the Parlia- 
ment of Religions, while the speakers selected were 
expected to state their own beliefs with freedom and 
frankness, it should be done in a catholic spirit and with 
a view to comparison and development of thought, with- 
out unfriendly criticism of other Faiths. 

When a tentative programme for the Parliament had 
been made up and submitted to the criticism of the 
Committee, before any themes had been finally assigned, 
Dr. Barrows asked me to select four topics and name 
four of our representative New- Churchmen whom I 
should like to have invited to present them. In making 
the request he remarked that of course one of our men 
would be expected to present some phase of the subject 
of “ The Future Life.” 

In a careful examination of the proposed programme 
of subjects, I noticed that, while provision was made for 
treating the Christian Scriptures as a part of the sacred 
literature of the world, there was no suggestion of the 
presentation in any form of the doctrine of the Plenary 
Inspiration of the Scriptures. In like manner while 
“ The Incarnation Idea in all History ” was named and 
would, of course, include a discussion of the person of 
Christ, the Incarnation of God in Christ as unique and 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


72 

universal in its results was not at that time even inti- 
mated. In regard to man’s relation to God, or the 
problem of sin and reconciliation, the “need of a vicari- 
ous atonement” was named, suggesting what only a 
New-Churchmen could present in contrast, namely, the 
necessity of a Divine reconciliation of man, which still is 
not vicarious but personal and vital. 

The way seemed thus providentially open for the 
presentation to the Parliament of the four fundamental 
Christian doctrines by respresentatives of the Lord’s 
New Christian Church. When I suggested these sub- 
jects, “The Soul and its Future Life,” “The Plenary 
Inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures,” “The Incarnation 
of God in Jesus Christ,” and “Reconciliation Vital, not 
Vicarious,” with an explanation to Dr. Barrows of the 
distinctive teachings of the New Church in regard to 
them, he at once accepted them, suggesting only a change 
in the form of the second topic so as to read “The Char- 
acter and Degree of the Inspiration of the Sacred 
Scriptures.” 

An invitation was at once issued by Dr. Barrows to 
the gentlemen whom I had named as suitable persons to 
be asked to treat these themes, and in due course it was 
accepted. It is but fair to the authors of the papers 
which follow, to say that, in outlining to them the nature of 
the Parliament meetings, they were urged to observe in the 
treatment of their subjects the catholic platform of the 
assembly, and the strict limitation as to the time to be 
occupied. No doubt they would have written more 
explicitly of the distinctive character of the New-Church 
doctrine, and perhaps expounded some points in greater 
fullness, but for the restraint imposed by the desire to 
observe the spirit of these requirements. 

As the sessions of the Parliament advanced, it was 
evident that we had miscalculated the opportunity to 


PAPERS PRESENTED 


73 


present the distinctive character and claims of the reve- 
lation made for the New Church and the bearing of the 
Second Advent of the Lord upon the harmony of 
Religions, through our New-Church Congress. The 
interest in the Union meetings overshadowed the Denom- 
inational Congresses, and if the representatives of the 
non -Christian Faiths were to be reached and interested, 
it must be done from the Parliament platform. The 
programme was being varied from day to day for this 
reason, to admit themes which had not originally been 
intended for discussion. It was in this way that tjhe 
paper on “Swedenborg and the Harmony of Regions” 
was suggested. The claim of revelation for the doctrines 
contained in the writings of Swedenborg, and their 
aspect toward Christian and non-Christian Faiths, which 
was presented in the New-Church Congress by an admir- 
able series of papers, preserved in this volume, needed 
to be set forth in a general statement from the Parlia- 
ment platform to meet the conditions which had not 
been anticipated. When I opened the matter to Dr. 
Barrows, he at once and cheerfully made an appoint- 
ment for me to present the paper on “ Swedenborg and 
and the Harmony of Religions,” which had not until 
then been contemplated. 

The paper of Mrs. Dickenson on “The Divine 
Basis of Co-operation Between Men and Women,” was 
prepared for the women’s branch of the Congresses, 
and when it was determined to introduce the papers 
prepared by women into the general Parliament 
programme, it readily secured a place there by its excel- 
lence, more as representative of woman’s thought than 
as a presentation of New-Church doctrine. For that 
reason, in preparing it for a place here, some liberty has 
been taken in editing it into harmony with the intent 
of this volume. 6 


74 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


I 

THE SOUL AND ITS FUTURE LIFE 
BY REV. SAMUEL M. WARREN 

It is a doctrine of the New Church that the soul is 
substantial — though not of earthly substance — and is the 
very man; that the body is merely the earthly form and 
instrument of the soul; and that every part of the body 
is produced from the soul, according to its likeness, in 
order that the soul may be fitted to perform its functions 
in the world, during the brief but important time that 
this is the place of man’s conscious abode. 

If, as all Christians believe, man is an immortal being 
created to live on through the endless ages of eternity, 
then the longest life in this world is, comparatively, but 
as a point; an infinitesimal part of his existence. In 
this view, it is not rational to believe that that part of man 
which is for his brief use in this world only, and is left 
behind when he passes out of this world, is the most real 
and substantial part of him; every rational mind per- 
ceives that it can not be so. That is more substantial 
which is more enduring, and that is the more real part 
of a man in which his characteristics and his qualities are. 
All the facts and phenomena of life confirm the doctrine 
that the soul is the real man. What makes the quality 
of a man? What gives him character as good or bad, 
small or great, lovable or detestable? Do these qualities 
pertain to the body ? Everyone knows that they do not. 
But they are the qualities of the man. Then the real 
man is not the body, but is “the living soul.” The body 
has absolutely no human quality but what it derives from 
the soul, not even its human form; and all that is human 
about it departs when the soul leaves the body — even its 


PAPERS PRESENTED 


% 


human form quickly vanishes, and it returns to its com- 
mon dust. Of the body it could be said that 
“Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, 

Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.” 

But the man endures. If there is immortal life he has 
not vanished, except from mortal and material sight. As 
between the soul and the body, then, there can be no 
rational question as to which is the substantial and which 
the evanescent thing. 

Again, if the immortal soul is the real man, and is 
substantial, what must be its form? It can not be a 
formless, vaporous thing and be a man. Can it have 
other than the human form ? Reason clearly sees that if 
formless, or in any other form, he would not be a man. 
The soul of man, or the real man, is a marvelous assem- 
blage of powers and faculties of will and understanding; 
and the human form is such as it is because it is perfectly 
adapted to the exercise of these various powers and 
faculties. In other words, the soul forms itself, under the 
Divine Maker’s hand, into an organism by which it can 
adequately and perfectly put forth its wondrous and 
wonderfully varied powers, and bring its purposes into 
acts. 

The human form is thus an assemblage of organs 
that exactly correspond to and embody and are the 
express image of the various faculties of the soul. And 
there is no organ of the human form the absence of which 
would not hinder and impede the free and efficient action 
and putting forth of the soul’s powers. And by the 
human form is not meant merely, nor primarily, the 
organic forms of the material body. The faculties are of 
the soul; and, if the soul is the man, and endures when 
the body decays and vanishes, it must itself be in a form 
which is an assemblage of organs perfectly adapted and 
adequate to the exercise of its powers, that is, in the 


76 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


human form. The human form is then primarily and 
especially the form of the soul — which is the perfection 
of all forms, as man at his highest is the consummation 
and fullness of all loving and intelligent attributes. 

But when does the soul itself take on its human form ? 
Is it not until the death of the body? Manifestly, if it 
is the very form of the soul, the soul can not exist with- 
out it, and it is put on in and by the fact of its creation 
and the gradual development of its powers. It could 
have no other form and be a human soul. Its organs 
are the necessary organs of its faculties and powers, and 
these are clothed with their similitudes in dead material 
forms animated by the soul for temporary use in the 
material world. The soul is omnipresent in the material 
body, not by diffusion, formlessly, but each organ of the 
soul is within and is the soul of the corresponding organ 
of the body; so that every organic form of the body, 
inward and outward, is the material embodiment and 
counterpart of a corresponding organ of the soul, by 
which the soul manifests and puts forth its affections 
and its powers. Thus the saying of the Apostle Paul is 
literally and exactly true, that, “ If there is a natural 
body there is also a spiritual body” (I Cor. xv. 44), and 
that “If the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, 
we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens” (II Cor. v: 1). 

That the immortal soul is the very man involves the 
eternal preservation of his identity; for in the soul are 
the distinguishing qualities that constitute the individu- 
ality of a man— all those certain characteristics, affec- 
tional and intellectual, which make him such or such a 
man, and distinguish and differentiate him from all other 
men. He remains, therefore, the same man to all eter- 
nity. He may become more and more, to endless ages, 


PAPERS PRESENTED 


77 


an angel of light, — even as here a man may advance 
greatly in wisdom and intelligence, and yet is always the 
same man. 

This doctrine of the soul involves also the permanency 
of established character. The life in this world is the 
period of character-building. It has been very truth- 
fully said that a man is a bundle of habits. What man- 
ner of man he is depends on what his manner of life has 
been. This is meant by the words of the Scriptures, 
“ Their works do follow them” (Rev. xiv: 13), and “He 
shall render unto every man according to his deeds” 
(Mark xvi: 27). 

If evil and vicious habits are continued through life 
they are fixed and confirmed and become of the very 
life, so that the man loves and desires no other life, and 
does not wish to be, will not be led out of them, because he 
loves the practice of them. On the other hand, if from 
childhood a man has been inured to virtuous habits, these 
habits become fixed and established and of his very soul 
and life. In either case the habits thus fixed and con- 
firmed are of the immortal soul and constitute its per- 
manent character. The body, as to its part, has been but 
the pliant instrument of the soul. 

With respect to the soul’s future life the first impor- 
tant consideration is what sort of a world it will inhabit. 
If we have shown good reasons for believing the doctrine 
that the soul is not a something formless, vague and 
shadowy, but is itself an organic human form, substan- 
tial, and the very man, then it must inhabit a substantial 
and very real world. It is a gross fallacy of the senses 
that there is no substance but matter, and nothing sub- 
stantial but what is material. Is not God, the Divine 
Omnipotent Creator of all things, substantial? Can 
Omnipotence be an attribute of that which has no sub- 
stance and no form? Is such an existence conceivable? 


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But He is not material, and not visible or cognizable by 
any mortal sense. Yet we know that He is substantial; 
for it is manifest in His wondrous and mighty works. 
There is, then, other substance than that which is cogniz- 
able to the senses, there is even Divine substance; and if, 
as we have shown that reason clearly confirms, the soul 
is substantial; there is spiritual substance. And of such 
substance must be the world wherein the soul is eternally 
to dwell. That the spiritual world and the things of it are 
not visible, and not cognizable by any earthly sense, is no 
evidence that they are unsubstantial and unreal. The 
interior and most potent things of this natural world are 
not themselves tangible or visible or cognizable by any 
sense. It is proverbial that nature works unseen. What, 
for example, do we know of electricity except by its 
wonderful phenomena? Its phenomena, its wondrous 
power in and upon things visible and tangible, give proof 
of it. But what are these to the stupendous and varied 
powers of the spiritual within the natural universe 
which we see about us in all the phenomena of vegetable 
and animal life, and even in the inorganic things of 
nature, which as servants of the Divine Creator, Him- 
self invisible, inspire and effect the numberless and mar- 
velous activities which make an otherwise inert and dead 
material world to be quick, and living, and filled with all 
things beautiful and desirable by man. It is the reality 
of the spiritual world that makes this world real, just as 
it is the reality of the soul that makes the human body a 
reality and a possibility. As there could be no body with- 
out the soul, there could be no natural world without the 
spiritual. Moreover, as it is not rational to believe that 
the body which the soul briefly inhabits is more substan- 
tial than the soul itself, which endures forever, so it does 
not satisfy enlightened reason to think that this world 
which is the place of man’s temporary sojourn is more 


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79 


substantial than that which the soul inhabits forever, 
that the temporal is substantial, and the eternal world 
spectral and unreal. Indeed every rational consideration, 
however viewed, goes to confirm the doctrine that the 
spiritual world is a substantial and real world. 

Not only is that world substantial, but it must be a 
world of surpassing loveliness and beauty. It has justly 
been considered one of the most beneficent manifestations 
of the Divine love and wisdom that this beautiful world 
that we briefly inhabit is so wondrously adapted to all 
man’s wants and to call into exercise and gratify his 
every faculty and good desire. And when he leaves this 
temporary abode, a man with all his faculties exalted and 
refined by freedom from the incumbrance of the flesh, 
an incumbrance which we are often very conscious of, 
will he not enter a world of beauty exceeding the love- 
liest aspects of this ? The soul is human, and the world 
in which it is to dwell is adapted to human life; and it 
would not be adapted to human life if it did not ade- 
quately meet and answer to the soul’s desires. Is it 
reasonable that this material world should be so full of 
life and loveliness and beauty, when “ Nature spreads 
for every sense a feast,” to gratify every exalted faculty 
of the soul, and not the spiritual world wherein the soul 
is to abide forever? Can it be that there is there no 
loveliness of sight and sound, no springing, joyful life, 
nothing to excite to noble contemplation and fill the 
mind with gratitude and joy ? It is not so ; but rather 
as it is written: “ Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love him” 
(1 Cor. ii: 9). 

And the life of that world is human life. The same 
laws of life and happiness obtain there that govern here, 
because they are grounded in huinan nature. Man is a, 


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social being, and everywhere, in that world as in this, 
desires and seeks the companionship of those that are 
congenial to him, — that is, who are of similar quality to 
himself. Men are thus mutually drawn together by 
spiritual affinity. This is the law of association here; 
but it is less perfectly operative in this world, because 
there is much dissimulation among them, so that they 
often do not appear to be what they really are, and thus 
by false and deceptive appearances the good and the evil 
are often associated together. 

And so it is for a time and in a measure in the first 
state and region into which men come when they enter 
the spiritual world. They go into that world as they 
are, and are at first in a mixed state, as in this world. 
This continues until the real character is clearly manifest, 
and good and evil are separated, and they are thus pre- 
pared for their final and permanent association and 
abode. They who in the world have made some real 
effort and beginning to live a good life, but have evil 
habits not yet overcome, remain there until they are 
entirely purified of evil, and are fitted for some society of 
heaven; and those who inwardly are evil and have out- 
wardly assumed a virtuous garb, remain until their dis- 
sembled goodness is cast off and their inward character 
becomes outwardly manifest. When this state of 
separation is complete there can be no successful dis- 
simulation — the good and the evil are seen and known as 
such, and the law of spiritual affinity becomes perfectly 
operative by their own free volition and Ghoice. Then 
the evil and the good become entirely separated into their 
congenial societies. The various societies and communi- 
ties of the good thus associated constitute heaven; and 
those of the evil constitute hell — not by any arbitrary 
judgment of an angry God, but of voluntary choice, by the 


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81 


perfect and unhindered operation of the law of human 
nature that leads men to prefer and seek the companion- 
ship of those most congenial to themselves. 

As regards the permanency of the state of those who 
by established evil habit are fixed and determined in 
their love of evil life, it is not of the Lord’s will, but of 
their own. We are taught in his holy Word that he is 
ever ‘'gracious and full of compassion.” He would that 
they should turn from their evil ways and live, but they 
will not; as He said of those of Jerusalem — “How often 
would I have gathered thy children together, even as a 
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would 
not. Therefore your house is left unto you desolate.” 

There is no moment, in this or in the future life, when 
the infinite mercy of the Lord would not that evil men 
should turn from their evil course and live a virtuous 
and upright and happy life; but they will not in that 
world for the same reason that they would not in this, 
because when evil habits are once fixed and confirmed 
they love them and will not turn from them, “even as the 
sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the 
mire” (II Peter ii : 22). “Can the Ethiopian change his 
skin, or the leopard his spots ? Then may they also do 
good that are accustomed to do evil” (Jer. xiii: 23). 
Heaven is a heaven of men; and the life of heaven is 
human life. The conditions of life in that exalted state 
are greatly different from the conditions here, but it is 
human life adapted to such transcendent conditions; and 
the laws of life in that world, as we have seen, are the 
same as in this. Man was created to be a free and will- 
ing agent of the Lord to bless his kind. His true happi- 
ness comes, not in seeking happiness for himself, but in 
seeking to promote the happiness of others. Where all 
are animated by this desire, all are mutually and recipro- 
cally blest, 


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Such a state is heaven, according to the degree in 
which it is attained, whether measurably in this world or 
fully and perfectly in the next. Then must there be 
useful ways in heaven by which they can contribute to 
each other’s happiness. And of such kind will be the 
employment of heaven; for there must be useful employ- 
ments. There could be no happiness without them to 
beings who are designed and formed for usefulness to 
others. What the employments are in that exalted con- 
dition, we cannot well know, except as some of them are 
revealed to us; and of them we have faint and feeble 
conception. But undoubtedly one of them is attendance 
upon men in this world. It is written, — and the words 
apply to every man: “He shall give his angels charge 
over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways” (Ps. xci: 11); and, 
“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to min- 
ister for them who shall be heirs of salvation 
(Heb. i: 14.) 

Such, in general, according to the revealed doctrines 
of the New Church, is the future life of the immortal 
souls of men. 


II 

THE DIVINE BASIS OF CO-OPERATION BETWEEN 
MEN AND WOMEN 

BY LYDIA FULLER DICKINSON 

The paper prepared by Mrs. Dickinson discusses the 
significance of the new interest in woman’s relation to 
man, and at some length the question of woman suffrage. 
While many of her conclusions along this line can not be 
set forth as representing any consensus of interpretation 
pf the teachings of the New Church, what she has to say 


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83 


of the orginal bond between man and woman, and the 
Divine basis of co-operation between them, together with 
her interpretation of the history of their relations and 
the meaning of the changes taking place, may rightfully 
appear here. Speaking of the original or creative rela- 
tion, she says: 

“To those who can accept it, sacred history satisfac- 
torily answers the question. From this source we learn 
that He who made them in the beginning, made them 
male and female; that the creative bond between them is 
the bond of marriage admitting of no divorce because 
they are no longer two but one, being joined together by 
God Himself, that is creatively. In a relation of essential 
oneness, such as is contemplated here, there can of course 
be no subjection of one to the other, no separation 
between them. They are complementary to each other. 
They are each for the other quite equally. It is clear, 
however, that this prospective relation of essential one- 
ness between the individual man and woman presupposes 
two things: — first, a basic marriage in the universal, a 
marriage of man as man with woman as woman; a mar- 
riage, in other words, of the essentially masculine with 
the essentially feminine; such a marriage or oneness of 
interest and work in all their relations with one another 
as would lay the proper foundation for a marriage or one- 
ness of interest and work in their more important 
because commanding relation with each another, — com- 
manding because individual marriage although last in 
time is first in end. It gives the law. As is this relation 
ideally or actually, such is society, mutually peace-giving 
and helpful, or the reverse. 

“And second, this prospective relation of essential 
oneness between the individual man and woman presup- 
poses a marriage in each individual, an at-one-ment with 
one’s self that would make at-one-ment with another 


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possible- Christ’s words unquestionably refer to a time 
when, by implication, harmony prevailed on all the planes 
of our individual and asssociated life. ‘In the begin- 
ning,’ He said, ‘it was not so.’ Divorce was impossible, 
because ‘they were made male and female,’ the perfect 
complements each of the other.” 

“According to sacred history, then, marriage, a rela- 
tion of perfect oneness or equality, a complementary 
relation precluding the idea of separation, is the original 
bond between individual men and women, because it is 
the bond between the masculine and feminine princi- 
ples, in the individual mind. But marriage, as we have 
seen, means harmony, and we have discord in ourselves 
and in our relations with each other. How, then, came 
the departure from the true ideal ? 

“The separation, we are told, dates from Eden and 
the sin of Eve; and one of the consequences of the sin is 
recorded, not, however, as the vindictive judgment of the 
Almighty, but as the fact merely, in the so-called curse 
upon the woman for listening to the voice of the serpent. 
‘He,’ thy husband, ‘shall rule over thee/ 

“Let us for a moment consider the fact in its relation 
to the individual mind; for all truth is true for us prim- 
arily as individuals. What we are to others depends 
upon what we are in ourselves. We have in this declara- 
tion a case, not of marriage, but of divorce. The mind is 
at variance with itself. One part rules, the other must 
obey. For the mind, like man and woman, is dual and 
is one only in marriage. It is a discordant two when we 
love what the truth forbids, and a harmonious complemen- 
tary one when we love what the truth enjoins. By com- 
mon preception love is the feminine and truth the mascu- 
line principle. Love, when it is the love of self, leads 
us astray. It led us astray as a race. It blinded us to 
the real good. Truth brings us back to our moorings. 


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But it can only do so by its temporary supremacy over 
love. This we all know. Our desires must be subject to 
our knowledge. History repeats the story of our indi- 
vidual experience in larger characters in the relation 
between man and woman. Each is an individual, that is, 
each is both masculine and feminine in himself and her- 
self; but in their relations to each other, man stands for 
and expresses truth in his form and activities, while 
woman stands for and expresses love. Here also, as in 
the individual, the original bond is marriage implying no 
subjection on the part of either wife or husband; imply- 
ing, on the contrary, perfect oneness, mutual and equal 
helpfulness. But except in the symbolic story of Edenic 
peace and happiness, none the less true, however, because 
symbolic, we have no record of that infantile experience 
of the race. As I have said, we find man and woman 
separated when history begins, the woman subject to the 
man, thus at variance with each other, and by conse- 
quence with all others; the original bond broken, discord 
and strife the rule, might calling itself right wherever it 
could prevail. The paradise of unreasoning infancy is 
lost through perverted love. And so, having gone astray, 
love, the feminine, woman, — and perforce, women, since 
they stand for woman in both men and women, — falls in 
the Divine Providence under subjection. Love blind to 
the highest good can no longer lead. Truth takes the 
helm; and man wdio stands for the truth, comes to the 
front. 

“ Love, when it is love of good, unites the truth in 
herself. But when it is the love of evil or self, she 
divorces truth and unites herself with the false. This, 
briefly, is the meaning of the separation between man and 
woman in the past; namely, first, the degeneration of 
love into self-love, and the consequent separation between 
love and truth in the individual mind, a separation that 


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blinding us to the highest good, makes it no longer safe 
for us to follow our desires. Second, the separation 
between man and woman in the marriage relation, and, 
as a further consequence, between man and man socially.” 

The paper proceeds to consider the effects of the evils 
of self-love upon the relations of men and women, and the 
providential means by which they are led to a relation 
more in harmony with the creative bond between them. 
In the view of the writer, the present significance of 
“Woman Suffrage” and other such questions is a more 
or less intelligent perception of the truths above laid 
down. 

“ Human history, it is true, is the record of a seeming 
divorce between them. But what GGd hath joined 
together man cannot really put asunder. Creatively 
one, man and woman cannot permanently be separated. 
Indeed their temporary separation is providentially in the 
interest of their higher ultimate union. We are on our 
way back to relations between them of which those of 
our racial infancy were the sure promise and held the 
potency. Truth divinely implanted in the soul is our 
leader, because truth, being essentially separative or 
critical can, when necessary, lead against desire. We 
have emerged from infancy and must prove out human- 
hood by overcoming the obstacles to harmony we have 
ourselves created. First nature without us, always res- 
ponsive to nature within, is in rebellion and must be 
subdued. Here again ‘ In the sweat of thy brow shalt 
thou eat bread’ is not a curse, but the provision of Infi- 
nite Love for our development physically and mentally. 
Nature no longer responds spontaneously to the needs 
of man, but brings forth thorns and thistles and yields 
bread only under compulsion, the compulsion of the 
clear, cold, masculine intellect, which alone is able to 
master nature’s secrets and resistance. She understands 


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87 


the law of must , and submits to the might of masculine 
muscle. Woman has apparently no place in this needful 
preliminary work save to sustain the worker. Beally, 
however, she not only sustains, she inspires both work and 
worker. True in her representative capacity of love, the 
highest in both, she is under subjection; yet she sees, not 
rationally of course in the beginning, but intuitively, the 
reason why; acquiesces, and hidden from view still leads 
while she follows, still rules in obeying. For love, or its 
opposite self-love, is always the very life of man, as love 
is the life of God who creates him. It is always the 
woman within us that first, giving birth and then respond- 
ing to the voice of truth or falsity without, leads us 
on and out of the wilderness, or sends us back to wander 
yet another forty years before we may enter our Canaan. 
Woman, yes, and women, are primarily, even though 
sometimes ignorantly, responsible from first to last. It 
has not always seemed so. The past has been so pre- 
dominately masculine as seemingly to obliterate the femi- 
nine by absorption, — to make the man and the woman one 
and that one the man. Yet only in seeming. In reality 
woman has been the inspiration of all that has been done, 
both good and evil. Tennyson does not see clearly when 
he says, ‘As the husband so the wife is.’ It is always 
the other way. It is always the clown within and not 
without herself that drags down a woman and the man 
with her. 

“But let us take another step. Our way back involves 
not only the overcoming of obstacles to harmony in 
nature without us, the subjugation of nature and the 
consequent establishment of a scientific consciousness in 
accord with the spiritual truth that harmony for man 
presupposes his rightful lordship over all below him; it 
also involves the overcoming of nature within, an at-one- 
ment of man with himself. And here the work is alike 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


for both man and woman, in that both are alike subject 
to the truth. In addition, however, she has been exter- 
nally subject to him. And her temptation has been to 
identify the voice of truth within herself with his voice, 
his idea of the truth for her. This when both are led by 
love is the true idea for both, since then his voice is the 
voice of truth. But led by self-love, she, too, must listen 
to the voice within. And, moreover, she must listen for 
him as well as for herself. Because so listening, she is 
the very form or embodiment of that love of the truth 
which alone can lead them back to harmony in them- 
selves, with each other and all others. In other words, 
so listening, she is a revelation of the truth to man. 

“In the concrete man sees his chief good, namely, 
a saving love of the truth, in woman and only in her. 
She embodies and expresses this love for him. It is 
hers, if she so wills, to give him back his perverted idea 
of the truth, immersed in the sophistries of self-love, as 
Eve gave the fruit of the tree; or, on the contrary, hearken- 
ing to the voice within which says, ‘Ye shall not eat of it’ 
she may like Beatrice lead him out of Inferno andPurga- 
torio into the peace and purity of Paradise, because her- 
self purified through previous self-conquest. 

“The work of self-conquest is of course an individual 
one. Men are regenerated through the feminine of love 
within themselves and despite the failure of the particu- 
lar woman with whom they are associated. Yet this does 
not in the least lessen the responsibility of the woman 
any more than the fact that woman, too, must find the law 
of her life within herself lessens the responsibility of the 
man to be to her an external confirmation and embodi- 
ment of that law. 

“Woman subject to man and expressing self-love 
rather than love, through a desire to gain selfish ends by 
pleasing him, ends that, being subject, she could gain in 


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89 


no other way, has not as she is divinely empowered to do, 
always held him to the highest. She has too often given 
him back his own idea of the truth immersed in the 
sophistries of self-love. She has thus promoted discord 
as well as harmony. She has led to the lowest as well as 
to the highest. I mean of course primarily the woman 
principle in both men and women. But as women stand 
for that principle, it is fair to hold them mainly respon- 
sible for its practical failure in social life, in so far as we 
have failed, as we hold and rightly hold men responsible 
for the imperfect embodiment of truth or wisdom in 
their especial domain, the domain of law.” 

The paper proceeds to discuss the evidences of the 
dawn of a better appreciation of the true function of love 
in the domain of justice and progress, and concludes that 
with it will come a modification of human law as the 
expression of man’s idea of right. 

“A relation of marriage, or in other words, of mutual 
co-operation all the way through, in all the work of both, 
is the creative relation between man and woman. It is 
the basic human relation. It follows that, as this truth 
is seen and realized by individual men and women, 
society will see the same truth as its own law of life, to 
be expressed, ultimated, in all human relations and in the 
work of the world. This truth and this alone will lead 
us back to harmony on all the planes of our associated 
life. 

“Under anew impulse derived from woman herself, man 
is abdicating his external leadership, his external control 
over her. This he must do because his leadership and 
control in the past have expressed separation and not 
union. He must do it for his own as well as her educa- 
tion into a higher idea of marriage. He must make the 
law in all its aspects toward her conform to this higher 
idea, to the truth that they are complementary to each 

7 


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PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


other. Not ‘He for God only, she for God and him; , 
but both alike for God and each other. He must be 
willing to have her come down into the arena and share 
his contact with the world, since this is manifestly the 
providential school in which she is to learn her long 
neglected lesson of personal responsibility. She is to 
learn not only that she has feet of her own upon which 
she must stand; she must also learn for both their sakes 
how to stand upon them. The questions before us for 
solution to-day are pre-eminently social rather than polit- 
ical. They relate to the well-being of society, not merely 
to the success of party. They therefore include woman 
as she has never before been included, that is consciously, 
and in a way externally; in her way, however, not in 
man’s way. They are questions of the very life of man 
in the act of taking an upward step in his spiritual 
development.” 


Ill 

CHARACTER AND DEGREE OF THE INSPIRATION OF 
THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES 

BY THE REV. FRANK SEWALL 

There is a common consent among Christians that 
the Scriptures known as the Holy Bible are divinely 
inspired; that they constitute a book unlike all other 
books in that they contain a direct communication from 
the Divine Spirit to the mind and heart of man. The 
nature and the degree of the inspiration which thus 
characterizes the Bible can only be learned from the 
declaration of the Holy Scriptures themselves, since only 
the Divine can truly reveal the Divine or afford to 
human minds the means of judging truly regarding what 
is Divine. 


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91 


The Christian Scripture, or the Holy Bible, is written 
in two parts, the Old and the New Testament. In the 
interval of time that transpired between the writing of 
these two parts, the Divine Truth and essential Word, 
which in the beginning was with God and was God, 
became incarnate on our earth in the person of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. He, as the Word made flesh and dwelling 
among men, being himself ‘the true Light that lighteth 
every man that cometh into the world,’ placed the seal 
of Divine authority upon certain of the then existing 
Sacred Scriptures. He thus forever fixed the Divine 
canon of that portion of the written Word; and from 
that portion we are enabled to derive a criterion of judg- 
ment regarding the degree of Divine inspiration and 
authority to be attributed to those other Scriptures which 
were to follow after our Lord’s ascension and which 
constitute the New Testament. 

The Divine canon of the Word in the Old Testament 
Scriptures is declared by our Lord in Luke, twenty- fourth 
chapter, forty- fourth verse, where He says: ‘All things 
must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, 
and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me.’ 
And in verses twenty-five to twenty-seven: “O fools, and 
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have 
spoken ’ — ‘ and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, 
He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures things 
concerning Himself.’ The Scriptures of the Old Testa 
ment thus enumerated as testifying of Him and as being 
fulfilled in Him embrace two of the three divisions into 
which the Jews at that time divided their sacred books. 
These two are the Law (Torah), or the ‘ Five Books of 
Moses,’ so-called, and the Prophets (Nebiim). Of the 
books contained in the third division of the Jewish canon, 
known as the Kethubim or ‘other writings,’ our Lord 
recognizes but two: He names by title ‘the Psalms;’ and 


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PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


in Matthew, twenty- fourth chapter, fifteenth verse, when 
predicting the consummation of the age and His own 
second coming, our Lord cites the prophecy of Daniel. 
It is evident therefore that our Lord was not governed 
by Jewish tradition in naming these three classes of the 
ancient books which were henceforth to be regarded as 
essentially ‘the Word,’ because of having their fulfillment 
in Himself. In the very words of Jesus Christ the canon 
of the Word is established in a twofold manner: First, 
intrinsically, as including those books which interiorly 
testify of Him and were all to he fulfilled in Him. 
Secondly, the canon is fixed specially by our Lord’s 
naming the books which compose it under the three 
divisions: ‘The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.’ 
The canon in Ihis sense comprises consequently: 

I. The Five Books of Moses, or the ‘Law,’ so-called. 

II. The books of Joshua, the Judges, First and Sec- 
ond Samuel, First and Second Kings, or the so-called 
earlier prophets, and the later prophets, including the 
four ‘great’ and the twelve ‘minor’ prophets. 

III. The book of Psalms. 

The other books of the Old Testament, namely: 
Ezra, Nehemiah, Job, Proverbs, First and Second Chron- 
icles, Ruth, Esther, the Songs of Solomon, and Ecclesi- 
astes, as well as the so-called ‘Apocrypha,’ are not only 
not included by our Lord in the scriptures ‘testifying of 
Him,’ but they lack the intrinsic evidence of being 
‘spoken by the Lord’ which the scriptures of the Divine 
canon every where exhibit. 

Of those books, which compose the Divine canon 
itself, it may be said that they constitute the inexhausti- 
ble source of revelation and inspiration. We may regard 
therefore, as established that the source of the divinity 
of the Bible, of its unity, and of its authority as Divine 
revelation lies in having the Christ, as the eternal Word 


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93 


within it, at once its substance, its inspiration, its 
prophecy, its fulfillment, its power to illuminate the 
minds of men with a knowledge of Divine and spiritual 
things, to ‘convert the soul,’ to ‘make wise the simple.? 

We next observe regarding these Divine books that 
besides being thus set apart by Christ, they declare 
themselves to be the Word of the Lord in the sense of 
being actually spoken by the Lord , and so as constituting 
a Divine language. Not only do these books claim to 
be of God’s revealing, but the manner of the revelation 
was that of direct dictation by means of a voice actually 
heard, as one hears another talking, although by the 
internal organs of hearing. This holds true of all the 
prophetical books above enumerated. We ai e met with 
the constant declaration of the ‘Word of the Lord 
coming,’ or the ‘voice of the Lord speaking,’ to the 
writers of these books, showing that the writers wrote 
not of themselves, but from the ‘voice of the Lord 
through them.’ Thus it was not the holy prophets that 
spoke ‘since the world began’ but it was the ‘Lord God 
of Israel who spake by the mouth of the holy prophet’ — 
(Luke i:70). 

We now turn to the New Testament, and applying 
to those books, which in the time of Christ were yet 
unwritten, criteria derived from those books which had 
received from him the seal of Divine authority, namely, 
(I) that they are words spoken by the Lord or given by 
his spirit, and (II) that they testify of Him and so have 
in them eternal life — we find in the four Gospels 
either — 

1. The words “spoken unto us” by our Lord himself 
when among men as the Word, and of which He says: 
“The words which I speak unto you they are spirit and 
they are life,” or — 


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PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


2. The acts done by Him or to Him “that the Script- 
ures might be fulfilled,’ and the words ‘called to the remem- 
brance’ of the apostles and the evangelists by the Holy 
Spirit according to his promise to them in John xiv: 26. 
Besides the four Gospels we have the testimony of John 
the Revelator that the visions recorded in the Apocalypse 
were vouchsafed to him by the Lord himself, thus show- 
ing that the Book of Revelation is no mere personal com- 
munication from the man John, but is the actual revela- 
tion of the Divine Spirit of Truth itself. 

No such claims of direct Divine inspiration or dicta- 
tion are made in any other part of the New Testament. 
Neither the Acts of the Apostles nor the Epistles of 
Paul or of the other apostles make any claim to be other 
than the productions of these human writers, comment- 
ing indeed upon the Gospel and under the promised 
illumination of the spirit, but in no sense adding to the 
Gospel itself. Only to the four Gospels and to the Book of 
Revelation could one presume to apply these words, 
written at the close of the Apocalypse and applying 
immediately to it: ‘If any man shall take away from 
the words of the prophecy of this book, God shall take 
away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy 
city, and from the things which are written in this book.’ 
In the portion of the Bible which we may thus distin- 
guish pre-eminently as the ‘Word of the Lord,’ it is there 
fore the words themselves that are inspired, and not the 
men that transmitted them. This is what our Lord 
declares, when He says: ‘The Words I speak unto yon, 
they are spirit, and they are life.’ 

Moreover, the very words which the apostles and the 
evangelists themselves heard, and the acts which they 
beheld and recorded, had a meaning and content of which 
they were partially and in some cases totally ignorant. 
Thus when our Lord speaks of the ‘eating of his flesh’ 


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95 


the disciples murmur, ‘This is an hard saying; who can 
bear it?’ And when he speaks of ‘going away to the 
Father and coming again,’ the disciples say among them- 
selves, ‘What is this that he saith ? We can not tell what 
he saith.’ In Luke xviii: 34, where our Lord has been 
predicting his own passion of the Cross the Evangelist 
writes: ‘They understood none of these things, and this 
saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things 
which were spoken.’ If we look at the Apocalypse, with 
its strange visions, its mysterious numbers and signs; if 
we read the prophets of the Old Testament, with their 
commingling of times and nations, and lands, and seas, 
and things animate and inanimate in a manner discordant 
with any conceivable earthly history or chronology; if 
we read the details of the ceremonial law dictated to 
Moses on the mount by the ‘voice of Jehovah;’ if we 
read in Genesis the account of creation and of the 
origins of human history — we are compelled to admit 
that the penmen recording these things were writing that 
of which they knew not the meaning; that what they 
wrote did not represent their intelligence or counsel, but 
was the faithful record of what was delivered to them by 
the voice of the Spirit speaking inwardly to them. Here, 
then, we see the manner of Divine revelation in human lan- 
guage, again definitely declared and exemplified in J esus 
the word incarnate, in that not only in His acts did He 
employ signs and miracles, but in teaching His disciples He 
‘spake in parables,’ and ‘without a parable spake he not to 
them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the 
prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I 
will utter things which have been kept sacred from the 
foundation of the world.’ 

“We learn, therefore, that the Divine language is that 
of parable, wherein things of the kingdom of heaven 
are clothed in the familiar figures of earthly speech and 


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action. If the Bible is Divine, the law of its revelation 
must be co-incident with that of Divine creation. Both 
are the involution of the Divine and Infinite in a series 
of veils or symbols, which become more and more gross 
as they recede from their source. In revelation the veil- 
ings of the Divine truth of the essential Word follow in 
accordance with the receding and more and more sen- 
sualized states of mankind upon earth. Hence the suc- 
cessive dispensations, or church eras, which mark off the 
whole field of human history. After the Eden days of 
©pen vision, when ‘heaven lay about us in our infancy,’ 
followed the Noetic era of a sacred language, full of 
heavenly meanings, traces of which occur in the hiero- 
glyphic writings and the great world -myths of most ancient 
tradition; then came the visible and localized Theocracy 
of a chosen nation, with laws and ritual, and a long his- 
tory of its war and struggle, and victory and decline, 
with the promise of a final renewal and perpetuation: all 
being at the same time a revelation of God’s providence 
and government over man, and a picture of the process 
of the regeneration of the human soul and its prepa- 
ration for an eternal inheritance in heaven. But even the 
law of God thus revealed in the form of a National con- 
stitution, hierarchy and ritual was at length made of none 
effect through the traditions of men, and men ‘seeing 
saw not, and hearing heard not, neither did they under- 
stand.’ Then, for the redemption of man in this 
extremity ‘the Word itself was made flesh and dwelt 
among us,’ and indeed, in the veil of a humanity subject 
to human .temptation and suffering, even to the death 
upon the cross. Where man receded farthest there the 
veil was grossest, the cloud most dense, until the prophet 
cried ‘Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God 
of Israel, the Savior,’ and the dying Christ sent forth 
the cry, ‘My God! Why hast thou forsaken me?’ 


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The process of the evolution of the Spirit out of the 
veil or of the letter of the Scripture, begun in our Lord’s 
own interpretation of the ‘Law for those of ancient time, 
is a process to whose further continuance the Lord him- 
self testifies. Not only was the ‘ Law as given by 
Moses’ then succeeded by the ‘Grace and truth which 
came by Jesus Christ,’ but the same Jesus says: “I have 
yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them 
now,’ and also: ‘These things have I spoken to you in 
proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more 
speak unto you in proverbs but shall show you plainly of 
the Father.’ The Lord’s future coming or further 
revelation is every where called a “coming in the clouds.” 
The letter of Scripture is the cloud which everywhere 
proclaims the presence of the infinite God with his creat- 
ure man. The cloud of the Lord’s presence is the infi- 
nitely merciful adaptation of Divine truth to the spiritual 
needs of humanity. The cloud of the literal Gospel and 
of the apostolic traditions of our Lord is truly typified by 
that cloud which received the ascending Christ out of the 
immediate sight of men. The same letter of the Word is 
the cloud in which he makes known his second coming in 
power and great glory, in revealing to the Church the 
inner and spirtual meanings of both the Old and New 
Testament of His Word. For ages the Christian Church 
has stood gazing up into heaven in adoration of Him 
whom the cloud has hidden from their sight, and with 
the traditions of human dogma and the warring of 
schools and critics more and more dense has the cloud 
become. In the thickness of the cloud it behooves the 
Church to hold the more fast its faith in the glory within 
the cloud. 

The view of the Bible and its inspiration thus pre- 
sented is the only one compatible with a belief in it as a 
Divine in contradistinction from a human production. 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


Were the Bible a work of human art, embodying human 
genius and human wisdom, then the question of the 
writers’ individuality and their personal inspiration, and 
even of the time and circumstances amid which they 
wrote, would be of the first importance. Not so if the 
Divine inspiration and wisdom are treasured up in the 
very words themselves as Divinely chosen symbols and 
parables of eternal truth. Far from placing a human 
limitation upon the Divine Spirit, such a verbal inspira- 
tion as this opens in the Bible vistas of heavenly and 
Divine meanings such as they could never possess were 
its inspirations confined to the degree of intelligerce 
possessed by the human writers, even under a special 
illumination of their minds. The difference between 
inspired words of God and inspired men writing their 
own words is like that between an eternal fact of nature 
and the scientific theories which men have formulated 
upon or about it. The fact remains forever a source of 
new discovery and a means of ever new revelation of the 
Divine; the scientific theories may come and go with the 
changing minds of men. 

It is not, then, from man, from the intelligence of 
any Moses, or Daniel, or Isaiah, or John, that the Word of 
God contains its authority as Divine. The authority 
must be in the words themselves. If they are unlike all 
other words ever written ; if they have a meaning, yea, 
worlds and worlds of meaning, one within or above 
another, while human words have all their meaning on 
the surface; if they have a message whose truth is 
dependent upon no single time or circumstance, but 
speaks to man at all times and under all circumstances; 
if they have a validity and an authority self dictated to 
human souls which survives the passing of earthly monu- 
ments and powers, which speaks in all languages, to all 
minds, wise to the learned, simple to the simple; if, in a 


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word, these are words that experience shows no man 
could have written from the intelligence belonging to his 
time, or from the experience of any single human soul, 
then mny we feel sure that we have in the words of our 
Bible that which is diviner than any penman that wrote 
them. Here is that which ‘speaks with authority and 
not as the scribes.’ The words that God speaks to man 
are ‘spirit and are life.’ The Divine authorship of the 
Bible, and all that this implies of authority to the con- 
science of man, is contained, like the flame of the Urim 
and Thummim on the breastplate of the high priest, in 
the bosom of its own language, to reveal itself by the 
spirit to all who will ‘have an ear to hear.’ So shall it con- 
tinue to utter the ‘dark parables of old which we have 
known and our fathers have told us,’ and ‘to show forth 
to all generations the praises of the Lord,’ becoming ever 
more and more translucent with the glory that shines 
within the cloud of the letter; and so shall the Church 
rest, amid all the contentions that engage those who 
study the surface of revelation, whether in nature or in 
Scripture, in the undisturbed assurance that the ‘Word 
of the Lord abideth forever.” 

IY 

THE INCARNATION OF GOD IN CHRIST 
BY REV. JULIAN K. SMYTH 

It is related that some Greeks once came to Jerusa- 
lem, and, to a fisherman of Bethsaida, they said: “Sir, 
we would see Jesus.” Hellas came to Israel; the nation 
of culture approached the people of revelation, and the 
patrons, if indeed, we may not say the worshipers, of 
the beautiful asked to look into the face of Him who 
“hath no form nor comeliness,” whose “visage was 


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PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


marred unlike to a man and His form unlike to 
the sons of men.” A few years later, a Tarsus 
Jew, a messenger of Jesus of Nazareth, standing in the 
court of the Areopagites, said to the men of Athens 
who asked concerning “the new doctrine:” “Whom ye 
ignorantly worship Him declare I unto you. ” And the 
question of the Greeks has passed from mouth to mouth, 
as the story of the “man of sorrows” has been carried 
around the world, until now, in this gathering together of 
all Religions, it is put forth as a question of humanity. 

To attempt to explain from the Christian standpoint 
the coming and the nature of that person, the influence 
of whose life has been so creative of spiritual hope and 
purpose, is a responsibility, the weightiness of which is 
felt in proportion as it is believed that to as many as 
receive Him, to them gives He the power to become 
children of God; that He is the Word made flesh, and 
that the glory which men behold in Him is in very truth, 
“the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” 

Christianity, in its broadest as well as its deepest 
sense, means the presence of God in humanity. It is the 
revelation of God in His world; the opening up of a 
straight, sure way to that God; and a new tidal flow of 
Divine life to all the sons of men. The hope of this has, 
in some measure, been in every age and in every Religion, 
stirring them with expectation. Evil might be strong; 
but a day would come when the seed of a woman would 
bruise the serpent’s head, even though it should bruise 
the Conqueror’s heel. God in His world to champion 
and redeem it! This is what the Religions of the ages 
have, in some form and with various degrees of certainty, 
looked for. This is what sang itself into the songs and 
prophecies of Israel: 

And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed; and all flesh 
shall see it together; for the month of Jehovah hath spoken it. 


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Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come in strength, and His 
arm shall rule for Him. Behold His reward is with Him and His 
work before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He 
shall gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in His 
bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. 

Christianity is in the world to utter her belief that 
He who revealed Himself as the Good Shepherd realizes 
these expectations and fulfills these promises, and that 
in the Word made flesh the glory of Jehovah has been 
revealed and all flesh may see it together. Even in child- 
hood He bears the name Emmanuel, which, being inter- 
preted, is “ God with us.” He explains His work and 
His presence by declaring that it is the coming of the 
Kingdom — not of law, nor of earthly government, nor of 
ecclesiasticism — but of God. His purpose, to manifest 
and bring forth the love and the wisdom of God; His 
miracles, simply the attestations of the Divine imma- 
nence; His supreme end, the culmination of all His 
labors, His sufferings, His victories, to become the open 
and glorified medium of Divine life to the world. It is 
not another Moses, nor another Elias, but God in the 
world, God with us, this, the supreme announcement of 
Christianity, asserting His immanence, revealing God 
and man as intended for each other, and rousing in man 
slumbering wants and capacities to realize the new vision 
of manhood that dawns upon him from this luminous 
Figure. 

Christianity affirms as a fundamental fact of the God 
it worships that He is a God who does not hide or with- 
hold Himself, but who is ever going forth to man in the 
effort to reveal Himself, and to be known and felt accord- 
ing to the degree of man’s capacity and need. This self- 
manifestation or forthgoiug of all that is known or know- 
able of the Divine perfections is the Logos, or Word; and 
it is the very center of Christian revelation. From the 


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EARLIAMRNT OF RELIGIONS 


beginning, — for so we may now read the “Golden Proem’* 
of St. John’s Gospel, with its wonderful spiritual history 
of the Logos — from the beginning God has this desire to 
go forth to something outside of Himself and be known 
and received by it. “In the beginning was the Word.” 
Hence the creation: — “All things were made by Him.” 
Hence, too, out of this Divine desire to reveal and accom- 
modate Himself to man, His presence in various forms 
of Religion: — “He was in the world.” Even in man’s 
sin and spiritual blindness the eternal Logos seeks to 
bring itself to his consciousness: — “The Light shineth in 
the darkness.” 

But gradually, through the ages, through man’s sinful- 
ness, his spiritual perceptions become dim, and he sees 
as in a state of open-eyed blindness only the forms 
through which the Divine mind has sought to manifest 
Himself. “ He was in the world and the world knew 
Him not.” What more can be done? Type, symbol, 
religious ceremonials, scriptures — all have been employed. 
Has not man slipped beyond the reach of the Divine 
endeavors ? But the Christian history of the Logos 
moves onto its supreme announcement: “And the Word 
was made flesh and dwelt among us; and we beheld His 
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, 
full of grace and truth.” Not some angel come from 
heaven to deliver some further message; not another 
prophet sprung from our bewildered race to chide, to 
warn, or to exhort, but the Logos, which in the beginning 
was with God and which was God; the Jehovah of the 
old prophecies, whose glory, it had been promised, would 
be revealed that all flesh might see it together. 

And so in the Christian view of it, the story of the 
Logos completes itself in the story of the manger. And 
so, too, the Incarnation, instead of being exceptional, is 
exactly in line with what the Logos has, from the 


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103 


beginning, been doing. God, as the Word, has ever been 
coming to man in a form accommodated to his need, keep- 
ing step with his steps until, in the completeness of this 
desire to bring Himself to man where he is, He appears 
to the natural senses and in a form suitable to our 
natural life. In the Christian conception of God, as One 
who seeks to reveal Himself to man, it simply is inevit- 
able that the Word should manifest Himself on the very 
lowest plane of man’s life, if at any time it would be 
true to say of his spiritual condition: “This people’s 
heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing 
and their eyes they have closed.” It is not extraordinary 
in the sense of its being a hard or an unnatural thing for 
God to do. He has always been approaching man, 
always adapting His revelations to human conditions and 
needs. It is this constant accommodation and manifes- 
tation that has kept man’s power of spiritual thought 
alive. The history of Religions, together with their 
remains, is a proof of it. The testimony of the historic 
Faiths presented in this Parliament, has confirmed it as 
the most self-evident thing of the Divine Nature in His 
dealings with the children of men; and the Incarnation 
is its natural and completest outcome. 

And then we begin to follow the life of Him, whose 
footprints, in the light of Christian history and experi- 
ence, are still looked upon as the very footprints of the 
Incarnate Word. The Gospel story is a story of toil, of 
suffering, of storm and tempest; a story of sacrifice, of 
love so pure and holy that even now it has the power to 
touch, to thrill, to re-create man’s selfish nature. There 
is an undoubted actuality in the human side of this life; 
but just as surely there is a certain Divine something 
forever speaking through those human tones and reach • 
ing out through those kindly hands. The character of 
the Logos is never lost, sacrificed or lowered. It is always 


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PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


this Divine something trying to manifest itself, trying to 
make itself understood, trying to redeem man from his 
slavery to evil and draw to itself his spiritual attachment. 
Here, plain to human sight, is part of that age-long effort 
of the Word to reveal Itself to man; only now through a 
nature formed and born for the purpose. We are 
reminded of it when we hear Him say: “Before Abraham 
was, I am.” We are assured of it when He declares that 
He came forth from the Father. And we know that He 
has triumphed when, at the last, we hear His promise, 
“Lo, I am with you always.” It is the Logos speaking. 
The Divine purpose has been fulfilled. The Word has 
come forth on this plane of human life, manifested Him- 
self, and established a relationship with man nearer and 
dearer than ever before.* He has made Himself avail- 
able and indispensable to every need or effort. “Without 
me, ye can do nothing.” In His Divine Humanity He 
has established a perfect medium whereby we may have 
free and immediate access to God’s Fatherly help. “I 
am the door of the sheep.” “I am the Way, the Truth 
and the Life.” 

In this thought of the Divine character of the Son of 
Man, the early Christians found strength and comfort. 
For a time they did not attempt to define this faith the- 
ologically. It was a simple, direct, earnest faith in the 
goodness and redeeming power of the God-man, whose 
perfect nature had inspired them to believe in the reality 
of His heavenly reign. They felt that the risen Lord 
was near them; that He w T asthe Savior so long promised; 
the world’s hope, “in whom dwelleth all the fullness of 
the Godhead bodily.” 

But to-day man claims his right to enter understand- 
ing^ into the mysteries of Faith, and Reason asks: How 
could God or the Divine Logos be made flesh? Yet, in 
seeking for an answer to such an inquiry, we are at the 


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same time seeking to know of the origin of human life. 
The conception and birth of Jesus Christ, as related in 
the Gospels, appears, to the reason, a strange fact. So, 
too, is the conception and birth of every human being. 
Neither can be explained by any principle of naturalism, 
which regards the external as first and the internal 
as second and of comparative unimportance. Neither 
can be understood unless it be recognized that spiritual 
forces and substances are related to natural forces and 
substances as cause and effect, and that they, the former, 
are prior and the active, formative agents playing upon 
and received by the latter. We do not articulate words 
and then try to pack them with ideas and intentions. 
The process is the reverse: first the intention, then that 
intention coming forth as thought, and then the thought 
incarnating itself by means of articulated sounds or writ- 
ten characters. 

By this same law man is primarily, essentially, a 
spiritual being. In the very form of his creation, that 
which essentially is the man, and which in time loves, 
thinks, enters eternal life, is spiritual. In his conception, 
then, the human seed must not only be acted upon but be 
derived from invisible spiritual substances which are 
clothed with natural substances for the sake of convey- 
ance. That which is slowly developed into a human being 
or soul must be a living organism composed of spiritual 
substances. Gradually that primitive form becomes 
enveloped and protected within successive clothings, 
while the mother, from the substances of the natural 
world, silently weaves the swathings and coverings which 
are to serve as a natural or physical body and make pos- 
sible its entrance into this outer court of life. 

We do not concede, then, that there is anything 
impossible or contrary to order in the declaration of the 


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Gospel, that “that which is conceived in her is of the 
Holy Spirit.” It is still in line with the general law of 
the conception and birth of all human beings. The 
primitive form or nature, as in the case of man, is spiritual. 
But in this instance it is not derived from a human 
father, but is especially formed or molded by the Divine 
creative spirit; formed as with us of spiritual substances; 
formed with a perfection and with infinite possibilities of 
development unknown to us; formed, too, for the special 
purpose of being the perfect instrument or medium upon 
and through which the Divine might act as its very soul. 
Because that primitive form is divinely molded or 
begotten, instead of being derived from a finite paternity, 
it is unique. It is Divine in first principles. In the 
outer clothings of the natural mind and in the successive 
wrappings furnished by Ihe woman nature, it shares our 
weakness. But primarily, essentially, it is born with the 
capacity of becoming Divine through the removal of what- 
ever is imperfect or limiting, and through complete union 
with the Divine which formed it for Himself. 

Very like our humanities, in all that pertains to the 
growth of the natural body and natural mind, would be 
this Humanity of the Son of Man. The same tenderness 
and helplessness of its infantile body; the same possibility 
of weariness, hunger, thirst, pain, jthe same exposure, 
too, in the lower planes of the mind, to the assaults of 
evil, resulting in struggle, temptation and anguish of 
spirit. And yet there is always an unlikeness, a differ- 
ence, in that the very primitive, determining forms and 
possibilities of that Humanity are divinely begotten. 

And so we think of this Humanity of Jesus Christ as 
so formed and born as to be able to serve as a perfect 
instrument whereby the eternal Logos might come and 
dwell among us; might so express and pour forth His 
love; might so accommodate and reveal His truth; might, 


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in a word, so set Himself on all the planes of angelic 
and human existence as to be forever after immediately 
present in them, and so become literally, actually God- 
with-us. 

Gradually this was done. Gradually the Divine 
Life of love and wisdom came into the several planes 
which, by incarnation, existed in this Humanity, remov- 
ing from them whatever was limiting or imperfect, sub- 
stituting what was Divine, filling them, glorifying them, 
and in the end making them a very part of Himself. 

This is in strict harmony with the testimony of the 
Gospels, and brings into harmony the two elements which 
we are apt to look upon and keep distinct: the Human 
and the Divine. For He Himself tells us of a process, 
a distinct change which His Humanity underwent, and 
which is the key to His real nature. “The Holy Spirit,” 
says the record, “was not yet given, because that Jesus 
teas not yet glorified” Some Divine operation was going 
on within that Humanity, which was not fully accom- 
plished. But on the eve of His crucifixion He exclaimed: 
“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified 
in Him.” It is this process of putting off what was finite 
and infirm in the Human and the substitution of the 
Divine from within, resulting in the formation of a 
Divine Humanity. So long as that is going on the 
Human as the Son, feels a separation from the Divine 
as the Father, and speaks of it and turns to it as though 
it were another person. But when the glorification is 
accomplished, when the Divine has entirely filled 
the Human and they act “reciprocally and unani- 
mously, as soul and body,” then the declaration is: “I 
and the Father are one.” Divine in origin; Human in 
birth; Divinely- Human through glorification. As to His 
soul, or immortal inmost being, the Father; as to His 
Human, the Son; as to the life and saving power that go 
forth from His glorified nature, the Holy Spirit 


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PARLIAMENT oe religions 


This story of the Divine life in its descent to man, 
this coming or incarnation of the Logos in the Humanity 
of Jesus Christ, it is the sweet and serious privilege of 
Christianity to carry into the world. I try to state it. 
I try from a new theological standpoint to show reasons 
for its rational acceptance. Yet the fact itself tran- 
scends all explanations. No one in this free assembly is 
expected to be without his special belief; no one is asked 
to set it aside. Yet who would not stand with his fellow 
Christians, and without doctrinal barriers between them, 
unite in that simplest, most comprehensive creed that 
was ever uttered: Credo Domino! Denominationalism, 
dogmatism, aside; aside, too, all prejudice and differences; 
what is the simplest, the fundamental idea of the Being 
of Jesus Christ? Brother men, are we not ready to unite 
in saying this, and saying it to the whole round world! 
The Lord Jesus Christ is the life or love of God, mani- 
festing Itself to man, going out into the world, awakening 
the capacity which is in every man for spiritual, yes, for 
Divine life. Is not that the very heart of the Gospel ? Or 
rather, is not' that the Gospel? And is it not also true 
that up to this hour, there is no fact so real, no fact so 
powerful, no fact that is working such spiritual wonders 
as the fact, the influence, the Being of Jesus Christ? 

We are assembled here as the first great Parliament 
of the Religions of the world. We rightly believe, we 
unanimously say, that from this time on the Fatherhood 
of God and the brotherhood of man must mean more to 
us than ever before ; and none can be so timid but would 
dare to stand here and say, that in this hall the death- 
knell of bigotry and sectarianism has been rung. Yet it 
were a sacrilege to suppose that the large tolerance which 
has been exercised here and which has secured for the 
representatives of every Faith such a hospitable reception, 
is the evolution of mere good nature. It is the Spirit of 


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Him, whose simple words have been inscribed as the text 
of the Columbian Liberty Bell, already ringing in “ the 
Christ that is to be:” 

A New Commandment 
I give unto you 
That Ye Love One Another 

And the same lips also said: “Other sheep I have 
which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and 
they shall hear My voice : and there shall be one fold and 
one Shepherd.” Because of such words we listen with a 
new eagerness to all that men have to tell of their Faiths; 
and there is no declaration of truth, however old, from 
whatever source, by whomsoever spoken, but has called 
out the heartiest tokens of approval, if only it strikes 
down to what we feel to be the eternal verities underlying 
our existence. That these declarations should often bear 
a striking similarity to some of the teachings of Chris- 
tianity is to many a surprise, when in reality the marvel 
of it is but another proof of how far-reaching and all- 
embracing is the Religion and the nature of Him who bore 
the world wide title Son of Man. Nor is it to be forgotten 
that the Christ did not simply teach the truth; He so 
embodied it, so lived it, that He could justly say, “ I am 
the Truth.” And Christianity is not afraid to say: The 
religion which bears His name is founded, not upon 
truth in the abstract, but upon a Person; a Person so 
true, so perfect in holiness, that we believe, nay, we feel, 
that He embodies pre-eminently the very life and Spirit 
of God. And with this manifestation has come a new 
conception of God as One who is willing to go any length 
in order to seek and to save that which is lost. And it is 
this truth — God seeking man, God serving man, God 
entering into our experiences of joy or of pain, and fairly 


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PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


urging upon us His help and forgiveness, — this is 
Christianity’s message to the children of men. It is not 
simply what Christianity has done, it is not simply what 
Christianity has taught; it is what Christ is that is 
enduring and vital. Often it has been said that the wise 
men of the East came to His cradle. May there be even 
greater cause for thankfulness in remembering that “wise 
men of the West started from His cross.” 

y 

RECONCILIATION VITAL, NOT VICARIOUS 

BY REV. T. F. WRIGHT, PH. D. 

There are certain dicta of Scripture, “which are uni- 
versal because fundamental, and fundamental because 
universal.” One of these is that saying of the Apostle 
John, “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth 
in God, and God in him.” Once of sympathies so narrow 
that he was for bringing fire from heaven down upon a 
village which would not receive his Lord as he journeyed, 
he was now so tenderly conscious of the infinite love 
which had sought him out and gathered him that he 
could say: “He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for 
God is love; beloved, if God so love us, we also ought to 
love one another.” John had attained to this conviction 
by the process of religious experience. Others have seen 
the same infinite fact written in vernal fields and ripen- 
ing harvests. Others find it in the intricate harmony of 
natural forces. They all see that there is as the center 
and source of life a fountain of fatherliness which is ever 
begetting and nurturing, so that, indeed, we can not con- 
ceive of the idle God, the neglectful God, or the God of 
limited interests. Our minds will not work until we 
place before them the ever-creating God, who neither 


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111 


slumbers nor sleeps; the ever present help. “Peradven- 
ture he sleepeth” might be said of Baal, for there was no 
answer; but when Elijah called on the God of Abraham, 
of Isaac, and of Israel, “the fire of the Lord fell.” It is 
in the light of this fact of the universal Divine love that 
the fallen condition of man finds its remedy disclosed. 

There may have been a time when this light was so dim 
that J udaism fancied its God a partisan, and a regressive 
Christianity thought that it had ascertained the limits 
of the Divine care, but now we know that God is one, 
and that “His tender mercies are over all His work.” This 
being so, it is true to say that the fallen man was succored 
by the same love that created him. The father of the 
prodigal does not sulk in his tent while some elder 
brother is left to search out the wanderer and bring 
him in, pointing to the wounds he got in rescuing him 
as a means of softening the heart of the father; nay, the 
father watches the pathway with longings, and sends his 
love after the boy, and when the wayward one is yet a 
great way off, he sees, he hath compassion, he runs, he 
falls on his neck, he kisses him; he bids them bring the 
robe, the ring, the shoes, the fatted calf; he reproves the 
cold vindictiveness of the elder brother; he is all shep- 
herd like. 

We need not dogmatize as to the fallen state of man. 
Intellectually man has not fallen. He is as bright as he 
ever was. He is growingbrighter. The evolution of the 
intellect is indisputable. But as to the will, what is 
man ? Is he the worshiping child that he ooce was ? 
Does he eagerly do the truth he learns or does he find it 
necessary to compel himself to do it ? There is a degree 
of ignorance, of illiteracy, but it is easy to find a remedy 
for it in the common school. There is on every side a 
spectacle of lust, and greed, and indolence, and selfish- 
ness, and our schools touch it not. We are making men 


112 


PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


shrewd, but we are not making them good. The human 
mind wants reaching in its depths. The motives behind 
our thinking want renewal, else mind- life is like John 
Randolph’s mackerel in the moonlight, which stank as it 
shone. So was man in the sad days of Roman sensuality 
and Jewish hypocrisy, and so do our daily chronicles 
testify to-day. The cure for the lost sheep is to seek for 
it till it is found. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; 
we have turned every one to his own way. (Is. liii: 6.) 
The question is, How should the Divine love accomplish 
the purpose with which it must be teeming — the recovery 
of the lost state ? Our answer is in general to say that 
the remedy was within the keeping of the infinite love 
and wisdom which had so far made and conducted man, 
or we must hold some view which limits the Holy One 
of Israel. If God would come with any mercy He must 
descend to the place of the fallen. If he would conquer 
the evil without destroying them, He must contend with 
them on their own plane. To take upon Himself the 
nature born of woman would be His means of redemp- 
tion. He must take on the office of Joshua, who led the 
people out of the wilderness into their inheritance. And 
a virgin conceived and bore a son, and called his name 
Jesus — that is, Joshua. The Wisdom or Word of God 
was made flesh, so that we behold the glory of the 
Father. It was the Father in the Son who did the works. 
How marvelously clear are the prophetic songs of Mary 
and Zacharias. She said: “My spirit hath rejoiced in 
God, my Savior. He hath showed strength with his arm. 
He hath holpen His servant, Israel, in remembrance of 
His mercy, as he spake to our fathers.” And the father 
of the forerunner said: “Blessed be the Lord God of 
Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people; that 
we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, 
might serve Him without fear all the days of our life; the 


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113 


day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to 
them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to 
guide our feet in the way of peace.” Therefore John the 
Baptist proclaimed him as “the Lamb of God that taketh 
away the sin of the world,” and therefore he bade his 
hearers prepare the way of Jehovah, and make straight 
his path. 

Born of woman, and so open to every temptation, He 
was early led to find the written Word, his light of life. 
He went about his father’s business by expounding it. 
Tried in the wilderness, he made no other answer than 
the law. Going about doing good, He healed the sick 
and gave sight to the blind, and brought good tidings to 
the meek. At Jerusalem he cleansed the temple of its 
corruption, even as he was daily rendering his own nature 
the temple of God. The inevitable conflict was not 
shunned. The perceived unfaithfulness of many did not 
provoke a word of resentment. The attempts of habitual 
sinners of this world and the other to overthrow him 
failed again and again, but it was inevitable that there 
must be a last and most direful assault. He foresaw it; 
but behold the conduct of infinite love! He bathed his 
disciples’ feet in order to teach them the new command- 
ment of love to one another. He bade them not be 
troubled, and spoke of the peace he had to give to them. 
He chastened himself in the garden. On his way to the 
cross he asked them to weep rather for themselves than 
for him. He gave the mother a son to care for her old 
age. To perjured Peter his answer had been but a look. 
To the false accusations he had been dumb. For his 
love they were his adversaries, but he gave himself unto 
prayer. Rising again, he came with indescribable gentle- 
ness to the recognition of Mary Magdalene. To the two 
discouraged disciples he was all patience. To doubting 
Thomas he was infinitely condescending. As he stood 


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PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 


there, for the time made visible to their spiritual sight, 
haviDg entered where the doors were shut, he was the 
embodiment of prophecy fulfilled, of divine love triumph- 
ant. He was, he is, “Our Lord and our God,” “The 
brightness of his glory, the express image of his person.” 

This is no merely vicarious act of a subordinate or 
additional person of God. It was the act of God Himself 
to restore the vital union between man and Himself, that 
union which man had severed by increasing self-asser- 
tion, waywardness, and wickedness, and which could only 
be renewed by contrition and return and reconciliation. 
In the case of the man healed of his blindness, in the 
ninth chapter of John, we have first the evil condition, 
then the remedy offered, next the remedy accepted, at 
once the cure effected, and finally a vital union of safety 
for him established with the Lord, as shown by his say- 
ing, “Lord, I believe,” and by his worshiping Him. In 
more difficult cases, as we know by some experience, the 
knowledge of the remedy may be cold and unfruitful in 
the memory until in seeking to lead a less selfish life, to 
be worthy of a loving wife or a trusting child, or to con- 
secrate our lives in full to the Lord’s service, we begin to 
form new motives with the Divine aid; to hate what we 
once wickedly loved, and to love what we once wickedly 
hated; and so, little by little, born from above, a new 
heart is formed within us, and we come to act as faith- 
ful rather than as unfaitful servants of the Lord, as 
friends rather than as enemies. So do we cease to do 
evil and learn to do well, if we will. Thus we may see 
that the will and the power to rescue and to reconcile 
wayward souls sprang from the infinite love; that the 
method is that of the Divine order; and that the result in 
the individual redeemed through repentance and regene- 
ration is just what man’s fallen state required and re- 
quires. It is precisely as Paul said: “ God was in Christ 


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115 


reconciling the world unto Himself.” (II Cor. v: 19.) And 
again he said: “In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the 
Godhead bodily.” (Col. xi: 9.) “ We dwell in Him,” said 
John once more, “and He in us; we loved Him because 
He first loved us.” “This is the true God and eternal 
life.” 

That uncreated beauty, which has gained 
My raptured heart, has all my glory stained; 

His loveliness my soul has prepossessed, 

And left no room for any other guest. 

YI 

BWEDENBORG AND THE HARMONY OF RELIGIONS 
BY REV. L. p. MERCER 

Before the closing of this grand historic assembly, 
with its witness to the worth of every form of Faith by 
which men worship God and seek communion with Him, 
one word more needs to be spoken, one more testimony 
defined, one more hope recorded. Every voice has 
witnessed to the recognition of a new age. An age of 
inquiry, expectation and experiment has dawned. New 
inventions are stirring men’s hearts, new ideals inspire 
their arts, new physical achievements beckon them on to 
one marvelous mastery after another of the universe. 
And now we see that the new freedom of “willing and 
thinking” has entered the realm of Religion, and the 
Faiths of the world are summoned to declare and com- 
pare not only the formulas of the past, but the movements 
of the present and the forecasts of the future. 

One religious teacher who explicitly heralded the new 
age before yet men had dreamed of its possibility, and 
referred its causes to great movements in the centers of 
influx in the spiritual world, and described it as 


116 PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 

incidental to great purposes in the Providence of God, 
needs to be named from this platform — one who ranks with 
prophets and seers rather than with inquirers and specu- 
lators; a revelator rather than a preacher and interpreter; 
one whose exalted personal character and transcendent 
learning are eclipsed in the fruits of his mission as a 
herald of a new dispensation in Religion, as the revealer of 
heavenly arcana, and “restorer of the foundations of 
many generations,” who, ignored by his own generation, 
and assaulted by its successor, is honored and respected 
in the present, and awaits the thoughtful study which 
the expansion and culmination of the truth and the 
organic course of events will bring with to morrow; “the 
permeating and formative influence” of whose teachings 
in the religious belief and life of to-day in Christendom 
is commonly admitted; who subscribed with his name on 
the last of his Latin quartos — Emanuel Swedenborg, “ser- 
vant of the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

That Swedenborg was the son of a Swedish bishop, 
a scholar, a practical engineer, a man of science, a phi- 
losopher and a seer, who lived between 1688 and 1772, is 
generally known. That the first fifty years of his 
remarkable life, devoted to the pursuit of natural learn- 
ing and independent investigations in science and phi- 
losophy, illustrate the type of man in which our age 
believes is generally conceded: Learned, standing far 
ahead of his generation; exact, trained in mathematical 
accuracy and schooled to observation; practical, seeing at 
once some useful application of every new discovery; a 
man of affairs, able to take care of his own and bear his 
part in the nation’s councils; aspiring, ignoring no useful 
application, but content with no achievement short of 
a final philosophy of causes; inductive, taking nothing 
for granted but facts of experiment, and seeking to 
ascend therefrom to a generalization which shall explain 


PAPERS PRESENTED 


117 


them — this is the sort of man which in our own day we 
consider sound and useful. Such was the man who, at 
the age of 56, in the full maturity of his powers declares 
that “he was called to a holy office by the Lord,” “who 
most graciously manifested himself to me in person and 
opened my sight to a view of the spiritual world and 
granted me the privilege of conversing with spirits and 
angels.” “From that day forth,” he says, “I gave up all 
worldly learning and labored only in spiritual things 
according to what the Lord commanded me to write.” 

He tells us that, while in the body, yet in a state of 
seership, and thus able to note the course of events in 
both worlds, and locate the stupendous transactions in 
the spiritual world in earthly time, he witnessed a last 
judgment in the world of spirits in 1757, fulfilling in 
every respect the predictions in the Gospel and in the 
Apocalypse; that he beheld the Lord open in all the 
scriptures the things concerning Himself, revealing in 
their internal sense and Divine meaning the whole course 
and purpose of His providence, organizing a new heaven 
of angels out of every nation and kindred and tongue, 
and co-ordinating it with the ancient and most ancient 
heavens for the inauguration of a new dispensation of 
Religion and of the Church universal; and that this new 
dispensation began in the spiritual world, is carried down 
and inaugurated among men by the revelation of the 
spiritual sense and Divine meaning of the sacred Script- 
ures, in and by means of which He makes his promised 
Second Advent which is spiritual and universal, to gather 
up and complete all past and partial revelations, to con- 
summate and crown the dipensations and Churches which 
have been upon the earth. 

The Christian world is incredulous of such an event, 
and for the most part heedless of its announcement; but 
that does not much signify, except as it makes one 


118 


PARLIAMENT OP RELIGIONS 


with the whole course of history as to the reception of 
Divine announcements. W hat prophet was ever welcomed 
until the event had proved his message? The question 
is not whether it meets the expectation of men; not 
whether it is what human prudence would forecast; but 
whether it reveals and meets the needs and necessities of 
the nations of the earth. “ My thoughts are not your 
thoughts, saith the Lord, neither are your ways my ways.” 
The great movements of Divine Providence are never what 
men anticipate, but they always provide what men need. 
And the appeal to the Parliament of Religions in behalf 
of the revelation announced from heaven is in its ability 
to prove its divinity by outreaching abundantly all human 
forecast whatsoever. Does it throw its light over the 
past and into the present, and project its promise into 
the future ? Does it illuminate and unify history, eluci- 
date the conflicting movements of to-day, and explain 
the hopes and yearnings of the heart in every age and 
clime ? 

There is not time at this hour for exposition and 
illustration, only to indicate the catholicity of Sweden- 
borg’s teachings in their spirit, scope and purpose. There 
is one God and one Church. As God is one, the human 
race, in the complex movements of its growth and history, 
is before him as one greatest man. It has had its ages 
in their order, corresponding to infancy, childhood, youth 
and manhood in the individual. As the one God is the 
Father of all, He has witnessed Himself in every age 
according to its state and necessities. The divine care 
has not been confined to one line of human descent, nor 
the revelation of God’s will to one set of miraculously 
given Scriptures. 

The great Religions of the world have their origin in 
that same Word or mind of God which wrote itself 
through Hebrew lawgiver and prophet and became 


PAPERS PRESENTED 


119 


incarnate in Jesus Christ. He, as “ the Word which was 
in the beginning with God, and was God,” was the light 
of every age in the spiritual development of mankind, 
preserving and carrying over the life of each into the 
several streams of tradition in the Religions of men, 
conserving and embodying all in the Hebrew Scriptures, 
fulfilling that in His own person, and now opening His 
Divine mind in all that Scripture. The Religions of the 
world are to be restored to unity, purified and perfected 
in Him. 

Nor is this with Swedenborg the liberal sentiment 
of good- will and the enthusiasm of hope, but the 
discovery of Divine fact and the rational insight of 
spiritual understanding. He has shown that the Sacred 
Scriptures are written according to the correspondence 
of natural with spiritual things, and that they contain 
an internal spiritual sense treating of the providence of 
God in the dispensations of the Church, and of the 
regeneration and spiritual life of the soul. Before Abra- 
ham there was the church of Noah, and before the Word 
of Moses there was an ancient Word, written in allegory 
and correspondences, which the ancients understood and 
loved, but in process of time turned into magic and 
idolatry. The ancient Church scattered into Egypt and 
Asia, carried fragments of that ancient Word, and pre- 
served something of its representatives and allegories in 
scriptures and mythologies, from which have come the 
myths and fables of the oriental Religions, modified 
according to nations and peoples, and revived from time 
to time in the teachings of leaders and prophets. 

From the same ancient Word Moses derived, under 
Divine direction, the early chapters of Genesis, and to 
this in the order of Providence was added the law and 
the prophets, the history of the incarnation, and the 
prophecy of a final kingdom of God, all so written as to 


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PARLIAMENT OE RELIGIONS 


contain an internal spiritual sense, corresponding with 
the letter, but distinct from it, as the soul corresponds 
with the body and is distinct and transcends it. It is 
the opening of this internal sense in all the holy Scrip- 
tures, and not any addition to their letter, which consti- 
tutes the new and needed revelation of our day. The 
science of correspondences is the key which unlocks the 
Scriptures and discloses their internal contents. The 
same key opens the scriptures of the Orient and traces 
them back to their source in primitive revelation. 

If it shows that their myths and representatives have 
been misunderstood, misrepresented, and misapplied, it 
shows also that the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures 
have been likewise perverted and falsified. It is that 
very fact which necessitates the revelation of their internal 
meaning, in which resides their Divine inspiration and 
the light of rational understanding, for the separation of 
truth from error. The same rational light and science 
of interpretation separates the great primitive truths 
from the corrupting speculations and traditions in all 
the ancient Religions, and furnishes the key to unlock the 
myths and symbols in ancient Scriptures and worship. 

If Swedenborg reveals errors and superstitions in the 
Religions out of Christendom, so does he also show that 
the current Christian Faith and worship is largely the 
invention of men and falsifying to the Christian’s Bible. 
If he promises and shows true faith and life to the 
Christian from the Scriptures, so does he also to the 
Gentiles in leading them back to primitive revelation and 
showing them the meaning of their own aspirations for 
the light of life. If he sets the Hebrew and Christian 
Word above all other sacred Scripture, it is because it 
brings, as now opened in its spiritual depths, the Divine 
sanction to all the rest, and gathers their strains into its 
sublime symphony of revelation. 


papers presented 


121 


“ So much for the indication of what Swedenborg 
does for catholie enlightenment in spiritual wisdom. 
As for salvation, he teaches that God has provided with 
every nation a witness of Himself and a means of eternal 
life. He is present by His spirit with all. He gives the 
good of His love, which is life, internally and impartially 
to all. All know that there is a God, and that He is to 
be loved and obeyed; that there is a life after death, and 
that there are evils which are to be shunned as sins 
against God. So far as any one so believes and so lives 
from a principle of Religion he receives eternal life in 
his soul, and after death instruction and perfection 
according to the sincerity of his life. 

No teaching could be more catholic than this, showing 
that, “whosoever in any nation feareth God and worketh 
righteousness is accepted of him.” If he sets forth 
Jesus Christ as the only wise God, in whom is the full- 
ness of the Godhead, it is Christ glorified and realizing 
to the mind the infinite and eternal Lover and Thinker 
and Doer, a real and personal God, our Father and 
Savior. If he summons all prophets and teachers to 
bring their honor and glory unto him, it is not as to a 
conquering rival, but as to their inspiring life, whose 
word they have spoken and whose work they have 
wrought. If he brings all good spirits in the other life 
to the acknowledgment of the glorified Christ as the only 
God, it is because they have in heart and essential faith 
believed in Him and lived for Him, in living according to 
the precepts of their Religion. He calls him a Christian 
who lives as a Christian; and he lives as a Christian 
who looks to the one God and does what He teaches, as 
he is able to know it. If he denies re-incarnation, so 
also does he deny sleep in the grave and the resurrection 
of the material body. If he teaches the necessity of 

9 


122 


Parliament oP religions 


regeneration and union with God, so also does he show 
that the subjugation and quiescence of self is the true 
“ Nirvana,” opening consciousness to the Divine life, and 
conferring the peace of harmony with God. If he teaches 
that man needs the Spirit of God for the subjugation of 
self, he teaches that this Spirit is freely imparted to who- 
soever will look to the Lord and shun selfishness as sin. 
If he teaches, thus, that faith is necessary to salvation, he 
teaches that faith alone is not sufficient, but faith which 
worketh by love. If he denies that salvation is of favor 
or immediate mercy, and affirms that it is vital and the 
effect of righteousness, he also teaches that the Divine 
righteousness is imparted vitally to him who seeks it first 
and above all; and if he denies that several probations 
on earth are necessary to the working out of the issues 
of righteousness, it is because man enters a spiritual world 
after death in a spiritual body and personality, and in an 
environment in which his ruling love is developed, his 
ignorance enlightened, his imperfections removed, his 
good beginnings perfected, until he is ready to be incor- 
porated in the Grand Man of heaven, to receive and 
functionate his measure of the Divine life and participate 
in the Divine joy. And so I might go on. 

My purpose is accomplished if I have won your 
respect and interest in the teachings of this great apostle, 
who, claiming to be called of the Lord to open the 
Scriptures, presents a harmony of truths that would 
gather into its embrace all that is of value in every 
Religion, and open out into a career of illimitable 
spiritual progress. 

The most unimpassioned of men, perhaps because he so 
well understood that his mission was not his own but the 
concern of Him who builds through the ages, Swedenborg 
wrote and published. The result is a library that calmly 
awaits the truth -seekers. If the Religions of the world 


PAPERS PRESENTED 


123 


become disciples there, it will not be proselytism that 
will take them there, but the organic course of events in 
that Providence which works on, silent but mighty, like 
the forces that poise planets and gravitate among the 
stars. 

Present history shows the effect of unsuspected causes. 
The Parliament of Religions is itself a testimony to unseen 
spiritual causes, and should at least incline to belief in 
Swedenborg’s testimony, that a way is open, both in the 
spiritual world and on earth, for a universal Church in 
the faith of one visible God in whom is the Invisible, 
imparting eternal life and enlightenment to all from 
every nation who believe in him and work righteousness. 






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NEW-CHURCH TEMPLE, CHICAGO 


BOOK II 


THE NEW-JERUSALEM 
CHURCH CONGRESS 





CHAPTER I 


THE PREPARATION AND 
PRESENTATION 

The Committee on a New- Jerusalem Church Congress 
was one of the first appointed after the organization of 
the General Committee, and its preliminary address was 
the first of its kind, and its tentative programme was the 
first issued. In the preliminary address, after explaining 
the scope and aim of the Congresses, the Committee said: 

Such an Ecumenical Conference acquires additional import- 
ance to the mind of a New-Churchman from the fact that it is a 
principle of faith with him that “the Lord provides with every 
nation a universal medium of salvation,” and that the essential 
saving truths of faith are common to all Religions; and that he 
who, in any Religion, “feareth God and worketh righteousness,” 
is capable after death in the world of spirits of receiving 
instruction and faith in Jesus Christ as “the only wise God our 
Savior;” and from the further principle of faith among us that 
the written Word of God is given on our earth, because “in con- 
sequence of the communication opened here among all nations,” 
it can be “conveyed from one nation to another and taught in 
all places.” Perhaps no such opportunity for the full, free, and 
friendly realization of this end of Divine Providence could 
under any other circumstances be presented. 

It devolves upon the New Church to see that those truths, 
which it distinctively holds in trust to teach for the help of man- 
kind, are fitly and adequately set forth in this Parliament of 
Religions, especially the following, namely: — 

1. The Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ in the open- 
ing of the Spiritual sense and Divine meaning of the Word of 
God, through the human instrumentality of Emanuel Swedenborg. 

2. The relation of this fact to the whole history of Religion 
in the progress of the ages, and the Divine Dispensations of the 
Church. 

3. The light it throws upon the unities and diversities of the 

Historic Faiths, ' and the present conflicts of opinion in 
Christendom. 127 


128 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


After correspondence with members of the Advisory 
Council, a tentative programme was made upon the 
theory of a general presentation of the claims of the 
New Church by the President of the General Conven- 
tion, and the President and Vice-President of the Eng- 
lish Conference; to be followed in daily sessions with a 
series of papers which should cover the Origin and 
Nature of the New Church, the planting of the New 
Church in the world, and the future of the Church or its 
mission to the world in the different departments of 
human thought and activity. 

A Committee in the Woman’s Branch of the Auxiliary 
was appointed, with Miss A. E. Scammon as Chairwoman, 
to represent the New Church. In conference with that 
committee it was determined that, beside taking charge 
of the provision for the social representation of the 
Church, the welcome of visitors, and the interesting of 
strangers during the Religious Congresses in the charity 
and brotherly spirit of the New Church as well as in its 
teachings, this Committee should interest and draw forth 
from the women of the Church an expression of their 
views upon its life and work The efficiency of this Com- 
mittee contributed greatly to the success of our work in 
the Congresses. The social spirit awakened by them not 
only in the New Church at large, but in the other local 
committees, had much to do in creating the friendly 
sphere which prevailed in the Parliament, as well as in 
and among the denominational Congresses. The labors 
of this Committee were unremitting through the whole 
series of Congresses, from May to October; and they drew 
to their assistance the cordial cooperation of New Church 
people from all parts of the country visiting in Chicago. 
When the Christian and non- Christian representatives 
assembled, therefore, they found our people active and 


129 


PREPARATION AND WELCOME 

influential in the stream of events; and the Oriental 
delegates especially responded with cordiality, and formed 
friendships that may be mutually useful in the future. 

Until the preparations were well advanced it was 
expected that the woman’s branch of the Congress Auxil- 
iary would meet separately. Our Joint Committee was 
the first to determine that in our own Congress the papers 
contributed by women Bhould form part of the common 
programme; and this plan was afterward generally 
adopted by the denominations and by the Parliament Com- 
mittee. A selection was made from the many papers 
offered by the Committee of Women, of such as were 
deemed most suitable to represent the teachings of the 
New Church as commonly interpreted among us. Many 
of the papers, however, treated of themes, or presented 
views worthy of consideration, but which could not be 
called representative. They were more suitable to a home- 
conference than to a presentation of the New Church 
before the world. This led to a decision to devote 
the afternoon session of each day to a “ Round-Table 
Conference,” at which these papers might be read and 
informally discussed. They were not entered upon the 
published programme, nor are they included in this vol- 
ume, because intended to awaken thought in the Church 
rather than to declare the thought of the Church. 

The intended programme for the Presentation meet- 
ing in Washington Hall had to be abandoned. The 
topics, as arranged to follow the Addresses of Welcome, 
were as follows: 

1. “ The New Church a New Dispensation.” By the 
Rev. Chauncy Giles. 

2. “ Relation of the Second Advent of the Lord to 
the History of Religion in the Progress of the Ages.” 
By the Rev. R. R. Rogers of England. 


130 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


3. “ The Light which the Internal Sense of the Word 

throws upon the Unities and Diversities of the Historic 
Faiths and the present Conflicts in Christendom.” By- 
Rev. J. R. Rendell of England. 

The failing health of the Rev. Chauncy Giles, who 
has since passed into the spiritual world, precluded his 
taking the part his brethren had been so much interested 
in as worthily representative of his whole life’s work; 
and our English brethren were not able to be with us, 
and did not respond with papers. It became neces- 
sary therefore to arrange for the Presentation meeting, 
selecting suitable topics from the analytical programme. 
The paper by the Rev. Frank Sewall on “The One Lord 
and One Church, with its Successive Ages,” and that by 
the Rev. J. K. Smyth on “ The Mission of the New 
Church to the Christian Denominations,” were admirably 
adapted to furnish, together with the Addresses of Wel- 
come, a general view of the mission of the New Church 
in the world. They are here placed, however, where they 
belong, in the analytical programme, in order that the 
series of essays may present as intended a complete view 
of the origin, nature and mission of the New Church to 
the human race. 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME BY C. C. BONNEY, PRESIDENT 
OF THE WORLD’S CONGRESS AUXILIARY. 

Members and Friends of the Church of the Holy 
City, New Jerusalem: — In the name of the Only Wise 
God our Savior, who was in Christ, reconciling the 
world unto Himself, and in whose glorified and Divine 
humanity dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, 
I reverently bid you welcome. 

The Church of the Holy City, New Jerusalem, which 
comes down from God out of heaven, having the glory 


PREPARATION AND WELCOME 


131 


of God, and a light like unto a stone most precious, even 
like a jasper stone clear as crystal, is pre eminently the 
Church of Reconciliation. It comes to reconcile reason 
and faith, science and religion, miracle and law, revela- 
tion and philosophy. It comes to reconcile the teachings 
of Sacred Scripture and the results of modern research; 
the apparent truths of superficial observation and the 
real truths of human experience; what we know of the 
spiritual world of causes and our knowledge of the 
natural world of effects. It comes to reconcile the duties 
of to-day and the hopes of to-morrow; the best use of the 
life that now is with the highest preparation for the life 
that is to come; the warfare with evil and the hunger for 
peace; the ministry of sorrow and the thirst for joy. It 
comes to reconcile labor and capital; industry and learn - 
ing; government and liberty; self-help and the help of 
others. It comes to reconcile with each other the con- 
tending sects of Christendom, and the multiform religious 
systems of the other parts of the world. 

This Religion of Reconciliation brings in its right 
hand the Word of God, and in its left the Divine Science 
of the relation between natural and spiritual things, by 
which alone that Word can be defended and expounded; 
and only asks that its teachings be considered in freedom 
according to reason, and accepted so far as they are seen 
to be true. 

The New- Churchman loves the followers of the Orien- 
tal Religions, not only because they, also, are children of 
the Father in Heaven, and brothers with spiritual needs 
like our own, but also because he sees in those Religions 
the remains of the Divine symbolism through which God 
talked with man in the ancient Church. He loves the Jew 
for his belief in the Sacred Scriptures of the Old Testa- 
ment, and because he represents the Divine Law and 
Prophecy. He loves the Catholic, because he represents 


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NEW-CHUECH CONGEESS 


the supremacy of Faith, and the sovereignty of the 
Church Universal. He loves the Lutheran, because he 
represents the great principle of personal responsibility 
to God, and the necessity of self-examination and judg- 
ment according to the Divine law. He loves the Congre- 
gationalist, because he is the representative of religious 
liberty in opinion and in worship. He loves the 
Methodists, because their church is the external form of 
a great religious movement of the New Age. He loves 
the Baptists, because they represent fidelity to the letter 
of the Holy Word in which abides its fullness and 
power. He loves the Presbyterians, because they repre- 
sent Divine justice and the punishment of sin. He 
loves the Universalists, because they represent the infinite 
love and mercy which gives to every soul all the wisdom 
and happiness it will receive. He loves the Friends, 
because they teach the simplicity and purity of the 
regenerate life. He loves Episcopalians, because they 
teach the beauty and utility of established forms of 
religious service and worship. He loves the Unitarian, 
because he represents the unity of God and the surpassing 
excellence of the Son of Man. The New-Chuivhman 
loves all who, in any form, and in any degree, worship 
God, and strive to do His will. If less favored than 
himself in religious light and knowledge, all the more 
they need his sympathy and help. 

So believing, the responsibilities of the New -Church- 
man are greater and more serious than those of the 
disciples of any other Faith. When he claims a better 
light, he acknowledges higher obligations. It is the 
mission of the New-Churchman to show that the Faith of 
the New Church is, indeed, “the Eeligion of Common 
Sense,” and that “ all Eeligion has relation to life, and 
the life of Eeligion is to do good.” 


PREPARATION AND WELCOME 


133 


The New-Churchman must be cosmopolitan. Wher- 
ever, in all the world, God is worshiped and man is loved, 
the New-Churchman should feel at home, able to sym- 
pathize and ready to help. 

This Congress has been arranged and the programme 
for it prepared by a Committee of Organization, of 
which the Rev. L. P. Mercer is Chairman; and a cooper- 
ating committee of women, of which Miss A. E. Scammon 
is Chairman. The programme is in every way worthy 
of the great occasion, and shows how ably and diligently 
the committees have done their work. I will only add in 
conclusion my humble and earnest acknowledgment of 
the Divine Providence of the Lord, to whom we are 
indebted for both the idea and the realization of the 
World’s Congresses of 1893. 

WELCOME AND DECLARATION BY REV. L. P. MERCER, 
CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE. 

It is my pleasant duty, in behalf of the Committee of 
the World’s Congress Auxiliary, to whom was intrusted 
the conduct of this Congress of the New Jerusalem 
Church, to extend to you welcome, and to our brethren 
of every Religion throughout the world greeting in the 
Name of the Only Wise God our Savior. 

There are abundant reasons why the New Church 
should enter cordially and actively into preparations for 
a World’s Congress of Religions. The youngest of the 
Historic Faiths, it reaches back to embrace the oldest, 
and to complete and crown them all with the final 
revelation which restores their pristine wisdom and Divine 
sanctions; and this, not as the triumph of human specu- 
lation, nor as the evolution of natural goodness, but as 
the gift of the abounding mercy and grace of the Lord 
God Omnipotent, worshiped in every tongue of man, 
and on every earth of the starry universe. 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


i34 


All Religions look, not only back to the revelations 
from which they originated, but forward to a culmination 
promised. They testify, not only to an innocence and 
wisdom lost, but to a fuller unfolding of the wisdom and 
power of God, promised and hoped for. The New- 
Jerusalem Church stands for, and witnesses to all the 
nations of the earth, the fulfillment of this expectation of 
the ages, in so far as Divine Revelation can institute and 
constitute the kingdom of God. It must be received 
into willing hearts, and build them up into the life of its 
principles, before the kingdom of God can come; but 
revelation institutes that movement, and influx of the 
Divine Spirit impels, directs and consummates that pur- 
pose in the currents of life in both worlds, and in the 
experiences of souls even that see not the hand by which 
they are led. 

We worship the One God, who is the Infinite and 
Eternal Lover and Thinker and Doer, who has created 
human souls in such form and structure that He may 
reveal Himself to them and re-create them into His image 
and likeness, and impart to them His goodness and wis- 
dom and the joy of His life. 

We believe that this One God, who is the Absolute 
Man, has revealed Himself from the beginning as the 
Heavenly Father; and that the streams of tradition pro- 
ceeding from that revelation have kept alive a witness of 
Him with every nation; and that all in any nation who 
look to Him according to their Religion, are gathered and 
instructed in the spiritual world into the right knowledge 
of Him, and protected in the spiritual and heavenly love 
and service of Him. We believe that all the just who 
have lived and died on earth, are thus living in the spirit- 
ual world in the fuller knowledge and love of Him, and 
that His Spirit, flowing in through a heaven of such, 
conserves and vivifies all that remains of permanent value 
in any Religion. 


PREPARATION AND WELCOME 


135 


We believe that He has, “at sundry times and in 
divers manners,” given the revelation which is contained 
in the Holy Scriptures, so that it should be not only a 
witness to Him, “in whom is life and whose life is the 
light of men,” but the fountain of light to angels as well 
as men, and thus the means of light through heaven to 
the “ends of the earth and to them that are afar off.” 

We believe that the Word which was with God and 
was God, “was made flesh and dwelt among us;” that 
He assumed our nature through the gate of birth and 
came into the world, that He might live the Word, assert 
its power against evil spirits, subjugate the hells, and 
redeem man from their dominion. We believe that in 
Jesus Christ he made His human nature Divine from the 
Divine in Himself, and the Visible God in whom is the 
Invisible; and that completing the Holy Scripture by the 
record of His work and the promise of His final coming 
and kingdom, He fills it with His Spirit and operates all 
power by means of it in heaven and on earth. 

We believe that the benefits of that redemption, and 
the quickening life and light of that Word, are extended 
through Heaven and the world of spirits to all, “whosoever 
in any nation feareth God and worketh righteousness. ” 

And we believe that even as He promised to come 
again to men, He has accomplished His Second Advent 
in the opening of the spiritual sense and Divine mean- 
ing of the written Word, through the human instrumen- 
tality of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Lord always makes 
use of men as His instruments on earth for the revela- 
tion of His truth to mankind. The whole course of His 
Providence in this respect has been to reveal at the great 
crises of the Church, through suitable men, the truth 
needed for the institution of a new era of the Church. 
Swedenborg, though largely endowed and marvelously 
trained for receiving in his understanding and publishing 


136 


NEW-CHURCfl CONGRESS 


to men a revelation of spiritual, rational and self- 
attesting truth, ascribes the authorship and authority of 
them to the Lord alone. 

The New Church, therefore, stands for this new 
revelation from the Lord — not in new Sacred Scriptures, 
but in the opening of the spiritual sense and genuine 
meaning of the Word given in the Old and New Testa- 
ments. This purely Divine work of opening the Sacred 
Scriptures and of revealing the science of correspondences 
which was the source of wisdom in the Ancient Churches, 
throws light also upon the origin and diversities of Relig- 
ions, furnishes the key to their sacred books, and leads 
them to their essential unity in the True Christian 
Religion and Church, now to be established as the culmi- 
nation and crown of all the Divine dispensations. The 
communication of the heavens with the Church on earth 
is opened anew; all those gathered into the heavens from 
every nation and kindred and tongue see a new mean- 
ing in the Word they have believed; the good from every 
Religion entering the spiritual world are instructed; and 
thus a new way is opened, both in the spiritual world 
and on earth, for a Universal Church in the faith of the 
One Visible God in whom is the Invisible, the Glorified 
and Divine Human Jesus Christ, “in whom dwelleth all 
the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” who imparts eternal 
life to all who look to Him and keep the commandments 
of righteousness. 

The grounds for this Faith will be opened more fully in 
the papers which are to follow, and more specifically in 
the future sessions of the Congress. It only remains for 
me to say that the New Church, from its very nature, 
cannot be the rival of any. Coming last in time, it comes 
from the God who creates and regenerates, and points to 
Him and His saving mercy in every Religion by which he 
is worshiped. Christian, it is yet neither a positive nor 


PREPARATION AND WELCOME 


137 


negative development of historical Christianity, but a 
new dispensation of truth and life from the Lord Jesus 
Christ which is universal in its spirit, scope and purpose. 
It is wide as human need, and universal and impartial as 
Divine love. It transcends sect and nation and extends 
by invisible chains of influx from society to society, 
binding all who love the Lord and work righteousness 
into One Grand Man of which the Divine Man is the 
transforming soul. It would gather into its embrace all 
the good and true of former dispensations, and open out 
into a career of illimitable spiritual progress, 

“ Till Christ in men the living Lord shall reign, 

And His One Church all churches shall contain.” 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME FROM MISS A. E. SCAMMON, 
CHAIRWOMAN OF THE WOMAN’S COMMITTEE. 

More than a hundred years ago an old bell rang out 
the Declaration of Independence of a people. In this 
year of our Lord 1893, in the cool air of a September 
morn, a new bell of Liberty rang out its ten strokes to 
proclaim another declaration, the message of peace, good- 
will to men. For at ten that same September morn the 
ten great Faiths of the world clasped hands, and the 
prophetic song of David seemed to be fulfilled, “Behold, 
how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell 
together in unity.” Who that was in that great Convo- 
cation in this Palace, well-named the Memorial Palace, 
did not thank God that he had lived to see this day ? 
And as he looked toward the representatives of the great 
Faiths of the world, their faces illumined by the sunlight 
of truth, what did he read there ? Religious conviction 
stamped upon the face of everyone; and if he turned to 
the audience the same eager look of earnest faith was 
reflected in every countenance. 10 


138 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


What is the meaning of this great assembly where the 
East and the West have met together, the forerunner of 
the time when righteousness and peace shall kiss each 
other? The meaning is this: Religion is the Divine 
instinct of the human race. It is the touch of sympathy 
which makes the whole world kin. Man born in the 
image of God seeks from the childhood to the manhood 
of the human race to understand the source of the life 
within him. “Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt 
return” has been the sad refrain of the past; “ and there 
shall be no more death, for the former things are passed 
away ” is the gospel of the future. Naturally, therefore, 
in the evolution of the idea of holding a World’s Con- 
gress, the Religious Congress was the first one suggested, 
and from that sprang into existence the idea of all the 
other Congresses. Finally, as culmination and comple- 
tion of the grand and universal circle of thought, the 
Parliament of Religion takes its place, the grandest 
parliament ever assembled upon this earth. A priest of 
Buddhism has told us that a Congress of Religion was 
held in the Island of Ceylon twenty-one centuries ago; 
but this is the first Congress wherein all Faiths of the 
world are represented, and where both men and women 
make up not only the audience but the Congress itself. 

No natural event can take place without its spiritual 
cause. What is the spiritual reason that women have 
part in this Congress of the Nations? Is it because they 
wish to be prominent among men? Ah, no! We must 
search farther for the answer to the inquiry. History 
and human consciousness give the reply. Every man 
and woman bears within him and within her the Divine 
attributes of truth and love; but in man the truth or 
reason leads, and in woman love. Therefore Religion, 
whose essence is love, finds a spontaneous response in 
the very being of woman, and as no life nor any work 


PREPARATION AND WELCOME 


130 


can be complete unless truth and love are united in it, so 
no Religious Congress could fulfill its mission without 
the full co-operation of men and women. This is the 
reason why the women of the New Age have put aside 
their disinclination to appear in public, and accepting the 
invitation of the World’s Congress Auxiliary as a call 
from above to answer for the Faith they love, and to 
share with others the joy of the truth they possess, they 
will seek in this Parliament to give the message of 
ivomanhood to the world. 

To-day the New- Jerusalem Church presents its decla- 
ration of faith and adds its welcome. The minister of 
the New Church in Chicago has given you the leading 
doctrines of our Church. The women of the New Church 
add their loving emphasis to his words, and with glad- 
ness of heart and thankfulness of spirit we welcome you 
all, and beg you, the representatives of foreign lands, to 
carry our fraternal greetings back with you to all the 
people who will watch for your return. We welcome 
you all, and especially greet as sisters the women who 
have traveled from far to join with us in making this 
assembly a veritable feast of love. We are delighted to 
know that a sister from India, who as a child, joined the 
circle of Christian believers, is with us; and also an 
earnest Christian woman from the historic island of 
Iceland. 

What is the word now for the New- Church woman to 
utter? The learned Yivekananda has said that the Brah- 
man sees good in all Religions. The New Church teaches 
that all Religions are providential, because they originate in 
Divine Truth; and that all religion has relation to life, and 
Ihe life of religion is to do good. Let no thought of 
personality enter this holy hour. Woman’s especial 
function is to embody in a form of good and use the 
eternal truths revealed to humanity. We believe that 


140 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


the Lord has come again by revealing Himself in the 
spiritual sense of the Sacred Scripture, and that from 
that sense are the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem. It 
is for the Church, which represents woman; it is for each 
individual woman of the Church, to seek the truth , the 
Lord, and to keep alive the affection for Him in herself 
and in man; to see and provide that every work in which 
she has a part is an expression of love founded upon 
truth. 

O, women, sisters all, of whatever race you may be, of 
whatever creed and clime, let us listen to the voice 
within; let us be sure we have the truth, and then let us 
obey it. Let not self-love, love of admiration, of power, 
of popularity, of wealth or rank, dim our vision. Let us 
prove all things by the gauge of their use, their good- 
ness, and the growth of the spiritual life within. 

You, my sisters in the New Church! If we feel that 
to our Church is given the highest revelation of truth; if 
we feel that to us, the women of the Church, is vouch- 
safed the conception of the highest life of Love itself; 
shall not each of us say, like Mary of old, “Behold the 
handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me according to Thy 
word.” 


CHAPTER n 


THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF THE 
NEW CHURCH 

I 

ONE LORD, ONE CHURCH, WITH ITS SUCCESSIVE AGES 

BY THE REV. FRANK SEWALL 

It is from the inmost idea of history that the whole 
course of the world may be surveyed and comprehended 
in its unity. The history of the world is never completed 
and its circle never closed, since it reaches into indefinite 
aeons of time. The Infinite alone, in whose vision time 
changes to eternity, can survey the whole of being and its 
destiny. But if we may regard the course of history as 
an ever widening spiral, we may, from the form of a 
series of gyres conceive of the form of the whole after a 
finite manner. This form of the whole takes its nature 
from the center from which it is developed, and so the 
central idea of history is the idea of God. As God is the 
Form of forms, so the nature of all forms or series of 
forms can be seen as we comprehend truly the nature of 
God, and so from the idea of God we can alone survey 
the course of history according to its unity; that is, 
according to its true form. 

It is the great privilege of the New Church, to whom 
is given the revelation of heavenly truths in their essen- 
tial character, to enter more deeply than has hitherto 
been accorded to man into the study of the Form of 
forms, and so to see the history of the world in its unity. 
Thus seen the history of the world is the history of the 


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NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


evolution of the Divine Love and Wisdom, and thus the 
development of forms from the original Form, the union 
of Infinite Love and Infinite Wisdom in the Being and 
the Person of God. 

“For things each and all to be forms it must be that 
He who created all things is Form itself, and that all 
things which have been created in forms are from Form 
itself.” “The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom are 
Form itself and thus the very and only Thing.” “The 
Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom are one in the Lord 
and proceed as one from the Lord; and the Form makes 
a one the more perfectly as the things entering into the 
Form are distinctly different and yet united.” (Sweden- 
borg’s Divine Providence No. 4.) 

All the created forms of the world and their develop- 
ment in a series are therefore nothing else than the evo- 
lution of the infinite things of the Divine Love and 
Wisdom which enter into and constitute the First Form 
— the Creator of the World. 

In this divinely revealed doctrine we shall find the 
key to the world’s history. The succession not only of 
the great Divine Dispensations or Churches, but of the 
physical and civil eras of mankind, is but the reaching 
out of the Divine for embodiment in human society, the 
shining forth of the Divine Light that it may become the 
Light and the Life of men. “The end of creation is a 
heaven from the human race.” The history of Religions 
has hitherto been regarded from stations on the circum- 
ference rather than from the center of Life. It has been 
the history of the fragmentary views of the Divine 
caught here and there by men, rather than a history of 
the Divine revealing itself to men. The Word as now 
revealed in its interior content is a history of the descent 
of the Divine into the outermost borders of creation, of 
its reception and treatment there, of its redeeming work 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


143 


there, and of its restoration of the world by the great 
atonement or reconciliation into unity with its Divine 
Creator and Source. 

The evolution of God, after the first groundwork of 
creation is laid in the material earths on which man could 
dwell, is the descent into the consciousness of men — 
first by direct inflowing and immediate revelation, and 
afterward by the Word written, and lastly by the Word 
incarnate in Jesus Christ, and the abiding presence of 
the Holy Spirit proceeding from His glorified and Divine 
Humanity. 

The succession of the great Churches or Dispensations 
among men is the succession of their several modes of 
understanding, receiving and obeying this ever outgoing 
Divine Word. Each great Church or Epochal Religion 
among men is such according to its peculiar understand- 
ing of the Word. 

There have been four such great Church eras in the 
world’s history, namely: those named in the Bible, as 
Adam, as Noah, as Abraham and as that of the Apostles of 
J esus Christ. The three names, Adam, Noah and Abraham 
only symbolize respective modes of receiving the Divine 
into human intelligence and moral activity; our Lord Jesus 
Christ Himself is the full reception, or as He Him- 
self declared, the Fulfillment of the law of the Prophets. 
These three epochal names are here used, viz: of the 
antediluvian, postdiluvian and Hebraic epochs, not as 
representing single individuals or families, but whole 
ages of religious experience. While there is a distinct 
demarcation between the Dispensations so named in the 
Divinely given record of their succession in our Sacred 
Scripture, it does not follow that in the history of man- 
kind these distinct religious eras have been the subject of 
any universal limitation as to the duration of each. 
Rather have the Dispensations overlapped each other and 


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NEW -CHURCH CONGRESS 


become commingled in innumerable ways, and each suc- 
ceeding age witnesses the survival of the religious forms 
of preceding ages. Not only does the Jewish Religion 
still retain a hold after centuries of Christianity have 
elapsed, but even to-day survive among the various forms 
of paganism, distorted remnants of the Religions, the rites 
and the worship of the Noetic age, as witnessed especially 
in the mythologies, the sacred monuments and hiero- 
glyphic writings of Egypt and of the Oriental world. 
Remnants of the Church of Eden may still be preserved 
among the aborigines in the heart of Africa; and in the 
calling of the Churches to judgment in the great consum- 
mation, we are taught that many shall come from the 
East and from the West, from the North and from the 
South, and sit down in the kingdom of God, but the 
children of the Kingdom shall be cast out. 

We are to distinguish, however, between the survival 
of the forms of a Religion, and that of the religious life 
itself which first inspired these forms. The forms, the 
traditions, the creeds even of a religious era may remain 
long after their life has ceased to be felt or regarded. 
It is the tendency of external things to harden and become 
unchangeable as they grow lifeless; and the perpetuation 
of many forms and usages which sprang originally from 
religious impulse, but have since wholly lost their relig- 
ious meaning, as, for instance, the very language we 
speak, the alphabet we write and print, all are but sym- 
bols of the Divine and spiritual realities which once lay 
visibly embodied in them. Our art of writing, the use of 
numbers and all hieroglyphics, and mythical deities, are 
remnants of the Noetic age, once full of Divine meaning, 
but now having a meaning only as applied to and con- 
nected with external things. The very language we 
speak, and especially that of the letter of the Word, is 
but a translation of what was an interior consciousness 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


145 


of Divine and spiritual realities. “ Enoch walked with 
God, and was not, for God took him.” (Gen. v: 24.) 
The Divine meaning still remains within the letter of 
the Scriptures as it does within the phenomena of nature, 
but our eyes and ears perceive only the surface and the 
symbol. While the interior perception remained, there 
was the vision of the Divine unity of things, — the worship 
of the One God. “ The whole earth was of one language 
and one speech.” (Gen. xi: 1.) The primitive Religion 
of the Golden Age was the mother of all Religions. The 
vast variety of its symbols were only expressions of the 
Infinite things that constitute the one primeval Form, — the 
Divine Love and Wisdom which formed the world. 

As the inner vision of the Divine One- in-many 
became dimmed, the symbols crystallized into as many 
different deities, each with its own special votaries and 
rites, and so arose the diversity of Faiths and worships 
which has gone on increasing to this day. It is as we 
penetrate to the reality within the symbol that we shall 
come back to the vision of the One God of all the ages, 
of all the Churches. 

The going forth of the Divine into the various planes 
of man’s receptivity, even to the last extreme — when God 
“looked, and there was no man,” and hence there 
remained only the fulfillment, “Lo! I come. In the 
volume of the book it is written of me” — is an evolution 
of God necessitated by the Divine Nature itself. Love 
lives in its going FORTH. That by which it goes forth is 
the “Sent of God,” it is the Divine Wisdom, the Word 
which in the beginning was with God and was God, but 
came into the world in the Incarnation as the “Sent of 
the Father.” “The Father that sent me, He doeth 
the works.” “I and my Father are one.” The separation 
of the Word from the Father, or of the Truth from the 
Love, necessary to the human intellect after it had itself 


146 


NEW CHURCH CONGRESS 


become severed from the high will of its first love and 
turned to the vision of the symbol only — this is the 
origin of the diverse Faiths and Religions of men. And as 
the lower will drew more and more the intellect into its 
service, even down to the plane of sensuous vision only, 
the idea of God, the Love that sends, became clouded 
to human comprehension. In scientific thinking it 
became clouded in the idea of nature; in the pagan 
theologies in the ideas of separate gods; in the incrusta- 
tion of Christian theology in the idea of a trinity of 
persons in the Godhead. But the “Sent” is always and 
only the “Sent of the Father,” and He and the Father, 
even as the Divine Wisdom and the Divine Love, even 
as the Word spoken and the heart that speaks it, are ever 
and forever One. “In Him was life, and the life was the 
light of men.” The words that He speaks, they are 
spirit and they are life. They that have seen Him have 
seen the Father. He and the Father are One. 

The separation of the intellectual vision, or the 
human apprehension of the revealed wisdom of God 
from the intuitive perception of the love, which separa- 
tion is the origin of the varying and successive Religions 
of the world, is itself the result of the closing of the 
interior planes of consciousness in the souls of men. 
The highest degree of the human mind — the celestial — - 
was that to which the Divine Love was immediately 
revealed, and to which heaven and its realities were an 
open vision. It was the Eden age of mankind; “ when 
Adam and his wife were both naked before God, and 
were not ashamed.” (Gen. ii: 25.) It was after this that the 
intellect entered upon the symbolic age of concealment, 
or the veiling of realities in the symbols of a language 
that could equally conceal and reveal. At the same time, 
with the desire of the intellect “to know good and evil,” 
and to make itself garments, instead of itself being the 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


147 


garment of the inflowing Wisdom and Love of God — 
came the closing of the celestial plane of the mind, the 
passing away of the Golden Age. 

The Divine descent now could find abode only in the 
plane of faith — the spiritual plane. It is the age of 
Noah, of the vine and its fruits; of the Flood and of the 
Ark; the ago of inventors, and at last, of the builders of 
the fatal tower, of the confusion of tongues, and the scat- 
tering abroad upon the face of the earth. And so passed 
by the second great age of human history, the mother of 
religious diversity and dissension. 

Then came the third, the sensuous, or natural age, 
when, the celestial and spiritual planes of (he mind being 
closed, the inflowing of God could only be perceived 
naturally and representatively in signs and wonders. 
Faith and love toward God could now only be exercised 
in the observance of a divinely ordained ritual, and in the 
obedience to a divinely given law of conduct. From 
Abraham to Moses, and to the Kingdom and to the Cap- 
tivity, the history of the Church and this period of the 
world is necessarily a thing of written Scripture. It is 
the Old Testament; it is the Word, not in the heart of 
the lover of God nor in the Faith of the believer, but in 
the Law and the Prophets; an external system of Relig- 
ion, a perfect symbol of God’s actual operation on an 
infinitely larger scale for the redemption of the human 
soul from the bondage of the natural will, into which, by 
the perversion of the intellect, it had sold itself. But it 
i$ a symbol of whose interior meaning the outward 
observers of the law became utterly oblivious, so that hav- 
ing eyes they saw not, having ears they heard not, neither 
did they understand; and yet within the symbol of the 
Law and the Prophets was the same watchful and out- 
reaching God of all the ages, the God of Abraham, the 
God of Noah and the God of Adam- 


148 


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Then in the fourth age of the world, when no longer 
even the sensual plane of reception of the Divine 
remained in man, since men had made even the law of 
God of none effect through their traditions, there was 
born into the world that Man-child who himself was to 
become the fulfillment of the Word, and then the very 
presence of God in human nature itself. Humanity was 
to be redeemed and glorified by the reception of the 
divine in all the degrees of the human mind, the celes- 
tial, the spiritual, and the natural, even to the corpo- 
real; and in the descent of God into His world, God 
came with a sword cutting a swath of heavenly light and 
purity and peace through the disordered, diseased and 
rebellious ranks of evil spirits, and their sinful obses- 
sions of mankind. God’s path downward opened man’s 
path upward. Jesus Christ was the Door; by Him man 
entered again into life and into a knowledge of the One 
God the Father. 

But not all at once was the ancient vision of the one 
God of the ages restored. Men in the Christian Church 
still read “with the veil upon their faces’’ as the Jews 
had done before (II Cor. iii:15), and the glorified Lord 
entered for a time into a cloud, on the Ascension into 
Oneness with the Father. But the promise was left with 
the Church He formed, that He would return; that 
although He had hitherto spoken even unto his apostles 
in proverbs, the day would come when He would “no 
longer speak unto them in proverbs, but would show them 
plainly of the Father.” 

The fifth age of the world, that of the promised second 
coming of Christ and of the descent of the Holy City New 
J erusalem as the tabernacle in which God will dwell with 
men and be their God, will, then, be the age of the remov- 
ing of the veil, the deeper unfolding of the symbolic 
Word in revelation and the plainer revealings of the 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


149 


Father. “In that day shall ye know that I am in the 
Father, and the Father in me.” Jesus as the One God 
of all the ages, the Wisdom in which is and ever breathes 
and lives the Divine Love — the one Life and Light of all 
worlds — this is the Faith to be restored to the Churches 
and the scattered Religions of the earth. It is the Faith 
in which the promise will find its blessed fulfillment of 
the “ One Fold and the One Shepherd,” “ of the One 
King of all the earth whose name is One,” even the king- 
dom of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, 
the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, who 
is and who was and who is to come — the Almighty! 

But the restoration of the unity of the Church will 
not be a mere intellectual revealing; it will indeed con- 
sist in the Lord’s opening the understanding of men that 
they may understand the Scriptures and see Christ alone 
as the veiy essence of the Word and its fulfillment from 
Genesis to Revelation; but the true unity will be the 
restoration of the union between the understanding of 
truth and the love of it and the will to obey it. To 
those desiring “to do the will of the Father” will it be 
given of the Spirit “to know of the doctrine.” The 
return of the Church to its unity in Christ, its Source, 
will consist in the reunion of faith and charity. This 
will itself effect the reopening of the spiritual con- 
sciousness of men, the lifting of mankind into that 
higher plane of vision wherein the veil shall be taken 
away and the Divine realities again seen. To the 
restored vision the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures 
will again be intelligible; the reality of man’s spiritual 
body and his life after death will be an acknowledged 
fact. The spiritual world will be seen as the inner mean- 
ing of nature, and heaven as the inner meaning and 
explanation of the human life; and in all will be recog- 
nized the One primeval Form revealed anew; the Divine 


150 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


Love and the Divine Wisdom and operation of the 
Eternal God, — the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, united 
and ever living in the Glorified and Divine Humanity of 
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion forever and 
ever. Amen. 


II 

THE CHURCH BEFORE CHRISTIANITY 
BY REV. GEO. NELSON SMITH 

The history of the Church in the world is comprised 
in two grand periods. The point of division between 
them is the coming of Jehovah, the Heavenly Father, 
clothed in Humanity for the redemption and salvation of 
men from captivity to evil. All other events of the 
Church center around that pivotal event which conjoined 
men with their Heavenly Father. All before that look 
forward to it, foreshadow it, and are fulfilled and ended 
in it. All after that take their rise from it, have their 
beginning in it, and are effects of causes which set it in 
motion. They are the working out of perfections which 
it made possible. 

We may call these two epochs of the Church by a 
name signifying the relation they bear to this event, thus: 
The Church before, and the Church after the advent of 
Christianity. They are so distinct and so different that 
they present distinct and different subjects for con- 
sideration. We will here consider: The Church before 
Christianity. 

It is not a subject that is altogether easy to consider. 
It is, indeed, the most difficult one in all history, as history 
is made and understood by the moderns. It reaches 
back into the prehistoric ages, or the mythological ages, 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


151 


as they are sometimes called, of which we have no trace 
except through mythology, or parable, or allegory, that 
needs to be interpreted in order to be understood. When 
we think how universally history shades back into 
mythology or allegory, wo realize how uncertain must 
be our knowledge of the early history of the race, 
especially as regards the states of the Church therein, 
unless we can make sure of the key to the interpretation 
of myth and allegory. That scholars are not sure of 
their own invented keys, their perpetual disagreements 
show. In this perplexity it is a relief to turn to the true 
key of sacred and Divine correspondences, as found in 
the Scripture, and unfolded by the revelation of its 
internal sense, which has been given for the use of the 
man of the Now Church. To do this is to be convinced 
at sight that in this “ science of sciences,” in which con- 
sisted the “ wisdom of the ancients,” telling of the rela- 
tion of correspondence between things visible and earthly 
and things invisible and heavenly, we find the only 
solution of the mysteries of the ages. This alone can 
open their “ dark sayings of old,” and enable us to read 
them. So sure am I that as I proceed it will be so 
recognized, that without further preliminary I will make 
it the basis of our sketch. 

Our subject subdivides into four epochs of the “ Church 
before Christianity.” These were: The Most Ancient, 
or Adamic, a perceptional Church; The Ancient, or 
Noatic, a correspondential Church; The Hebrew, a sacri- 
ficial-representative Church; and the Israelitish, a mere 
form or effigy of a sacrificial-representative Church. 

All these had one, and only one, feature in common. 
They had all a foreshadowing typical look toward the 
Incarnation of Jehovah. They all were chiefly “Shad- 
ows of good things to come,” which were to be fulfilled 
only in that event. And this was for the reason that 


152 


NEW CHURCH CONGRESS 


only then was the Divine Humanity of God, which had 
ever existed in potency and by representatives made a 
full actual and visible Divine Humanity, so that men 
could “worship and be conjoined to the visible God in 
whom is the invisible, as the soul is in the body;” and do 
it directly and immediately, without the aid of repre- 
sentatives. When the Humanity became the Mediator 
of access, representative intermediates were abolished. 
Before that, all alike had needed them, and used them. 
In every other respect they differed exceedingly. 

The Most Ancient, or Adamic, was especially unique. 
It differed widely both in origin and nature from any- 
thing else on earth. In origin, it was not, as has been 
supposed, an instantaneous creation: man full formed, 
mature, wise. The myth of the pre- Adamites has this 
truth in it; that from lower cruder beginnings the race 
ivas gradually brought up to the state of goodness and 
wisdom of the Most Ancient Church. 

The newly created man in his first state was instinct- 
ive and knowledgeless, like an animal. He differed from 
the animal more internally than externally. This was 
because he had in germ the internal degrees of a man 
with the capacity of their opening and development. 
He was not evil, as men have ever since been: only 
simple and undeveloped in human wisdom. His sim- 
plicity was not fierce and hurtful like that of the savage as 
we know him, but gentle and innocent, like the unoffen- 
sive animal. From this state by the gradual opening of 
his truly human faculties of perception he was raised to 
the state of full man; wise as well as good; and so the 
life of the Church was fully implanted in him. Its 
peculiarity was that it was implanted in simple good and 
innocence, without having to contend with and remove 
any of the hereditary evil of later times. It was the lift- 
ing up into a higher, more human plane, the simple 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 153 

instinctive goodness and innocence of the first state; 
making it instead of the good instinct of an animal, what 
we may call, if allowed the expression, the wise-good 
instinct of a man. His life was no less impulsive and 
spontaneous, but it was wisely so. It was that of a pure 
love of goodness and wisdom flowing forth into pure and 
clear perceptions of the things of goodness and wisdom. 
He could not, as we can do, love an evil and think a truth 
condemning it and admonishing of the duty of if s 
restraint. He could not indeed think separate from his 
love, nor in fact think in our sense at all; only love, and 
see what he loved, without any separate thought about it; 
all in one and the same life process. It was like the 
process of desire, thought and act, of a skilled instru- 
mental performer; all one instantaneous process; only 
that it was not, as that is, intellectually acquired. It 
spontaneously and perception ally flowed in from the Lord. 

Another unique quality followed from this. It was 
to be able perceptionally, and without having to learn 
and memorize, to see the revelations of Divine Wisdom 
made in the visible things of the Creator’s works. 
Creation was seen to be an outbirth of the Divine Love 
and Wisdom, and every object in it to be an especial birth 
of some principle of that Love and Wisdom; so that each 
corresponded or answered back to it. The sun, giver of 
natural heat and light, corresponded to the Lord’s 
heavenly sun, the giver of heavenly heat and light, love 
and wisdom from Him; the moon, receiving and reflect- 
ing light from the sun, corresponded to faith in men 
which receives and reflects the light of the Lord’s truth; 
the stars, smaller lights, corresponded to the lesser 
knowledges of Faith; the expanses in which they were 
corresponded to the true heavenly planes of life; clouds 
obscuricg their light corresponded to spiritual obscura- 
tions of heavenly light; earth, the place of external 

11 


154 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


environment and rest for human life, corresponded to the 
like outer planes of the spiritual life; mountains to 
heights of love; valleys to humble, lowly states; waters in 
various forms to truth in like various forms; animals, 
good and evil, to affections good and evil; birds, clean 
and foul, to true and false thoughts; trees and plants to 
the varied perceptive products of the mind; dwellings to 
the principle of life in which the mind dwells; husband, 
wife and children there dwelling, to intellectual affections 
and proceeding active principles of the mind. These and 
thousands like them they saw as correspondences, teaching 
them of the invisible things of creation, “which were 
therein clearly seen and known.” In this sight and 
knowledge they found revelation from the Lord, and the 
means of goodness and wisdom and of the life of the 
Church with them. 

The loss of this by its closure an internal 
revelation from the Lord, and its opening only as a 
sense of self knowledge; of the serpent-like, prone 
sense apprehension and persuasion that sense was all; 
its life the only life, its desires the only good, its 
conceits the only truth, brought the fall, and with it all 
evil into the world. What had been spontaneous and 
instinctive good and wisdom, became spontaneous and 
instinctive evil and fantasy. This, by generation after 
generation of going on from bad to worse, ended in a 
deluge of evils and fantasies that destroyed this percep 
tional state and the Church it had made. The mission 
of that Church was ended. It could no longer save men. 
Spontaneous evil loves became as destructive as spontane- 
ous good ones had been saving. There must be an end 
of spontaniety or man must be hopelessly lost. The 
whole order of life must be changed. The way must be 
opened for a process of reflection and deliberation, so 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


155 


that loves that are evil may be seen to be so and 
restrained, and better ones may be implanted to grow up 
in their place. 

This was accomplished by the formation of an 
understanding for thought separate from the evil loves 
of the will, and the sowing in that of the germs of new 
affections and seeds of new truth to guide and bring 
them to fruition. Among some of the simple and less 
corrupted Gentiles, a few Noite people were found 
susceptible of the change. With these was the Church 
in its new changed form established. This was done 
through the building up and entering into an “ark of 
safety” in newly found principles of conscience of right 
willing and doing. To provide the new formed under- 
standing with truths, providential preparation had been 
made through the Enoch men, who gathered, arranged 
and codified the science of the correspondences of natural 
to spiritual principles, that had been to the Adam men the 
means of revelation and instruction. Then they made 
record of them to be preserved and handed down against 
the time when they could be used by the Noite men. So 
far as the Enoch men were concerned, they “were not” 
as the Scripture expresses it; that is, were not of use, 
“for God took them” in His Providence to be preserved 
for the instruction of the Noites, as soon as their capacity 
for separate thought and understanding could be formed 
and put to use in better living. Thus came the first 
written Revelation, or the Ancient Word, now lost. 

A new understanding with such a simple Gentile 
people could at first be only a very simple and unstable 
thing, and easily intoxicated with its new-found truths. 
This drunkenness of the Noite people found two kinds of 
elements to treat it: one without charity turning it to bad 
account, Ham’s jesting on the occasion; and one with 
charity turning as far as possible to good, Shem and 


156 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


Japheth covering with the mantle of charity. These 
two states worked out their respective results of cursing 
and blessing, as they went down through the years; 
Ham’s posterity, Canaan, cursed, and Shem and Japheth 
blessed. The Canaanite element, as we know, early 
became direfully, cruelly wicked. The others, for com- 
paratively long ages, maintained their integrity. 

These elements emanating from their central Noatic 
source spread the new intellectually formed Church over 
wider extents, through a hitherto comparatively large 
Gentile world. The Most Ancient Church had not been 
of large extent, The sacred names, as its four rivers and 
others, have been preserved with sufficient definiteness to 
locate the lovely Eden state as having its seat centrally 
in Canaan and its immediate surroundings. The Ancient 
Church spread more diffusely into the outlying Gentile 
world and embraced all western and central Asia, north- 
ern Africa, and shading off and modifying by its signifi- 
cant symbolisms all Europe and its Islands of the sea. 
They all caught some of these symbolisms and turned 
them into the kaleidoscopic myths which are found in 
Greek, Roman, Slav, Norse, Teuton, Celtic and Briton 
lore. 

We now approach the transition period when prehis- 
toric record shades into historic record. We can begin to 
verify the prehistoric by the historic. W e here find much 
more of the loving and true life of the Church than we 
ever do afterwards. The early sacred books of Egypt, 
Assyria, Persia and India show a worship of one God, as 
a Being of Love and Wisdom, who is the All loving 
Father of men, and who brings his children into being to 
give them good, blessing and happiness, and who is best 
worshiped and served by them, when they give and 
receive the good and happiness which He created them 
for. These records are full of bright and cheerful views 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


157 


of life, its duties and its destiny. Their theme was 
thankfulness for the blessings of life, the fruits of the 
fertile earth, the delights of home and family, and the 
promises of life to come. They tell of men living simple 
peaceful happy lives in their quiet homes of loving fami- 
lies, giving and receiving the blessings of favoring 
heaven and bounteous earth. A late reviewer of these 
ancient books says: “It is only after ages of these happy 
times had passed that we find the change to the gloomy 
and despairing moods that are seen in all the Religions 
which have superseded them in which life is regarded as 
so much torture invented by the arch enemy of men, and 
its best hope is in its extinction in the final “Nirvana” as 
we now find brought forward in the newly revived The- 
osophy.” Men became mighty Nimrod hunters of new 
inventions of horrors, and towering “Babel builders” of 
dismal fantasies. The confusion they worked in the 
division of Faiths and alienation of hearts is only to-day 
under the auspices of the New Jerusalem and at the invi- 
tation of the New Church seeing the first effort at 
retrievement in the meeting and friendly greeting of all 
Religions, for the first time in the ages. 

The first step downward in the Ancient Church was 
in a tendency to materialize their symbolisms. The 
Noites had thought and talked of self sacrifice for others’ 
happiness. They had thought and talked of offering the 
hearts’ best loves to their Heavenly Father, and to His 
child, the brother. They had thought and talked of the 
good and innocent creatures which were forms embody- 
ing these loves. They grew in successive generations 
more and more material, and at last became impelled to 
enact all this in material form, and to make sacrifices 
and offerings of their symbols. The Hebrew people 
were the first to make this innovation. They first built 
altars that were more external than altars of the hearts’ 


158 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


worship, and offered on them sacrifices and offerings that 
were more material than “sacrifices of righteousness.” 
This practice, in the growing materialism of the age was 
catching. It spread far and wide, so that quite early in 
the historic period we find animal sacrifices and incense 
offerings quite general. The result, forgetting the 
meaning and regarding only the form, surely followed. 
Early in history this took place. Sacrifice of some victim 
was the usual propitiatory offering to heaven. 

With this came a degradation of the idea of the God 
to whom it was to be offered, as pleased with the blood of 
victims. Instead of the loving Father once wor- 
shiped, bloodthirsty monsters had come. Every newly 
invented perversion of Divine attributes into an image of 
the prevailing cruel thought became a new bloodthirsty 
cruel God. Even the idea of any one supreme God, to 
say nothing of any good and living one, was preserved 
only in the far east of Persia and Bactria in the Magian- 
izm of Zoroaster. And that was buried under many cor- 
ruptions of doctrine and shorn of its life and power. 
Everywhere true doctrine and life was gone. The repre- 
sentative Church of the Ancients had lost its power to 
lead men any more to goodness of life. It could no 
longer check the madness for dominion and greed, rapine 
and slaughter and every cruelty which blot the early his- 
tories. Thenceforth till the fullness of time was come 
when the Heavenly Father could “ visit and redeem His 
people ” and give them again a revelation of His love and 
His saving precepts of love, no true Religion of love could 
longer be preserved. Only an empty form of it could be 
secured to fill the gap and hold the earth in anticipation 
of and preparation for it. The Israel people filled this 
need. They were capital actors. They dramatized with 
zeal and care any formal part given them to act. They 
were of the original Hebrew stock where this tendency to 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 159 

enacting forms began. This genius intensified in them 
more than in any other people made them the best actors 
of a Church, while there was no Church in all the world. 
They cared all for acting — nothing for living. The 
Church was not in them, for neither of its loves, of God 
or man, were in them. They were always ready in a 
twinkling to leave the loving Father for the cruel blood- 
loving gods of the heathen. They were cruel to their 
fellow-man on every opportunity. Yet they received and 
carefully preserved for the ages to come the Divine Word 
as we have it, that contained the most intensely mono- 
theistic revelation ever given of the most loving Father 
ever revealed to wayward children, and a law of the most 
merciful brotherliness of mah with man ever written in 
moral code. They eagerly performed all the rites that 
symbolized it; the ritual of sacrifice that set forth the 
sacrifices of justice; the ritual of offering, of holy loves; 
the ritual of cleanness, “of clean hands and a pure 
heart;” of punctilious dealing, of brother love and 
mercy; and so* they preserved alive these shadows of good 
things to come till He should appear in whom they should 
be fulfilled, filled full of the loving principles that were 
in them. That they were not a Church makes no less 
important the preparation which they made for the 
Church which in the fullness of time was to come. They 
were given a work like that of the Enoch people. The 
Enoch men stored and preserved revelations of truth that 
they could not use till those who should come after them 
should use them. So the Israel people stored and pre- 
served the fuller revelations of the oracles of faith and 
life, using them not themselves, but sacredly keeping them 
for the use of the Christian Church that should come 
after. Thus they served an important use in preparation 
for that Church with its ‘‘good things to come,” “its sub- 
stance” to which all the forerunning shadows had pointed. 


160 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


By their zealous use of forms of representative worship 
they performed another and most important use — that of 
conjoining earth and heaven. 

The “whole family in heaven and earth are one.” The 
earthly members cannot be separated from the heavenly 
and live. In the interim when there was no Church that 
separation threatened. It was averted by the preserva- 
tion of the form of a Church by the Israel people. Their 
rites, devoutly performed, were accepted by simple spirits, 
who took things for what they seemed, who were drawn 
near to them while thus" devoutly engaged. Through 
these again angels were drawn in nearer presence to 
men, and the way of descent of heavenly life from the 
Lord through heaven held open till He should come and 
bring the fullness of God bodily to dwell with men, and 
so heaven and earth be made forever one. 


Ill 

THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST ADVENT 
BT THE REV. JAMES REED 

The Church of the First Advent is that which was 
called into existence by the Lord Jesus Christ, when He 
dwelt visibly on earth. All men know how, from among 
those who followed Him, He chose certain ones to carry 
on the work which He had begun. He said to them, 
“ All power (or authority) is given unto Me in heaven 
and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all 
nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and 
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to 
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” 
In obedience to His command the apostles went forth, 
proclaiming the glad tidings of the Gospel, and sealing 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


161 


belief in their Lord by His distinctive sign of Baptism. 
Thus were laid down the foundations of the Christian 
Church on which later generations builded. 

Before proceeding farther, let us understand what 
we mean by a Church. Says Swedenborg: “That 
which constitutes heaven with man, also constitutes the 
Church; for as love and faith constitute heaven, so also 
love and faith constitute the Church.” Where the Lord 
is acknowledged, and where the Word is, the Church is 
said to be; for the essentials of the Church are love to 
and faith in the Lord, from the Lord; and the Word 
teaches how man is to live in order that he may receive 
love and faith from the Lord. In order that there may 
be a Church, there must be doctrine from the Word, 
since without doctrine the Word is not understood. But 
doctrine alone does not constitute the Church with man, 
but a life according to it. (H. D. 241, 242, 243.) 

If we bear in mind this definition and apply it to the 
Church of the First Advent, we see that the coming of 
the Lord into the world had the effect of producing a 
new love and faith, which gave birth to that Church. 
This is an evident historical fact. The Jewish Church 
had come to its end. Such love and faith as it originally 
received had died out. The Jews were still in possession 
of the Word, or Divine Revelation as embodied in the 
Old Testament; but they had falsified and perverted it. 
Instead of imbibing its true teachings, they taught for 
doctrines the commandments of men. Instead of paying 
the Lord the sincere homage of a genuine worship, they 
fulfilled the prophetic saying, “ This people honoreth me 
with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Where- 
fore it became necessary that a New Church should be 
established, unless all love and faith were to perish from 
among men. 


162 


NEW CHURCH CONGRESS 


By the Lord’s life and teachings, this needful object 
was effected. He rekindled the expiring flames of a true 
Religion. He revealed a new convenant or testament, and 
breathed fresh meaning into the Old. He gave the 
impulse which resulted in a new phase of spiritual 
1 bought and life on earth. The faith of this New Church 
was belief in the One God made manifest in Jesus Christ; 
its love was a life of obedience to His Commandmenls. 
The early Christians cherished the Divine Word and 
valued its teachings as above all price. The essentials of 
the Church from the beginning of time had been belief in 
One God, the Creator and Preserver of the universe, and 
the keeping of His precepts as the means of coming into 
just and orderly relations with Him. Inseparable from 
these, was a belief in the revealed Word, which tells men 
all they know about the Lord and about His precepts; so, 
when the Christian Church was formed, there was sub- 
stantially a renewal of the ancient covenant with the 
Gospel supplementing the Law and the Prophets. 

But the purity and simplicity of the primitive Chris- 
tianity did not long continue. Metaphysical subtleties 
arose and clouded the minds of men. Dogmatic differ- 
ences concerning the nature and person of the Savior 
obscured and weakened the direct relationship which the 
Church had borne to Him. As the latter gained in pub- 
lic recognition, and grew more prosperous in a worldly 
way, it drifted farther off from its first principles. It 
was already rent with dissensions, when the Emperor 
Constantine avowed himself a Christian, and brought it 
under his powerful protection. To this fact, the Council 
of Nice, assembled by him in the year 325, bears abun- 
dant witness. The acknowledged purpose of that con- 
vocation was to deal with the heresy of Arius, and its 
proceedings mostly related to that subject. Out of it 
was born the Nicene Creed, and later, that which is 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


163 


coupled with the name of Athanasius. If truly God is 
one in essence and in person, and our Lord Jesus Christ 
is God humanly revealed, then did those creeds set up a 
false standard. By affirming three Divine persons from 
eternity, they destroyed the idea of Divine unity, and 
substituted for it what was virtually a belief in three 
Gods. In the same way they divided the allegiance 
which had formed its only fit expression in a life according 
to the Lord’s teachings, and they opened the door to the 
false and pernicious doctrine that man is saved by faith 
alone. 

Thus, from a spiritual point of view, -the primitive 
period of Christianity was its. Golden Era. When that 
period passed away, its state of comparative purity and 
innocence was never regained. A process of decline had 
begun from which there would be no recovery, till the 
Lord should come again and establish yet another 
Church. The Nicene Council forms the sharp line of 
demarcation, from which the decadence is to be traced. 
The disintegrating elements kept working, till at last 
they ended in death. This result was finally reached 
in the middle of the eighteenth century. 

Then it was that the old Christianity died out, and 
a new Christianity began. Then commenced a fresh era 
in the world’s progress — an era which all men recognize 
as now existing, though they do not yet perceive the 
Divine and heavenly source from which it had its origin. 

It is a significant fact that the thousand years follow 
ing the Nicene Council are commonly known as the Dark 
Ages. In them were combined all the elements of dark 
ness, ignorance, error, superstition, wickedness. During 
that period arose the phase of Christian faith and wor- 
ship which has its seat in Rome. Built on the false 
assumptions of the Nicene and Athanasian formulas, that 
system perpetuated the separation between the Church 


164 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


and her Lord which becomes inevitable when there is no 
clear conception of His nature, and added its pretensions 
of supreme spiritual dominion, which are equally fatal 
to any true relationship with God. Little by little was 
developed the theory that the bishops of Rome were the 
lineal successors of Peter, and held the keys of the King- 
dom of heaven. But in proportion as it was developed, 
the Church forsook the guidance of Scripture and sub- 
stituted her own devices. Human tradition superseded 
Divine revelation. Saints and virgin, pope and priests 
were interposed between men and their Lord. All this, 
claiming for itself His sanction, was the utter denial and 
rejection of His teachings. How could love and faith, 
which constitute the Church with man, fail to perish 
under such conditions ? 

The well-known story of the Reformation need not here 
be told. Suffice it to say, that the oppression and cor- 
ruption of the Papal power went beyond endurance. 
Luther protested against the heinous custom of selling 
spiritual privileges for money, and posted his theses on 
the Church gate of Wittenberg. In his words and acts 
of defiance he gave expression to the thoughts of many 
minds. But his protest was directed against the Romish 
polity and practices, not against the vital teachings of 
the Church. All the doctrinal misconceptions which 
were embodied in the Nicene creeds were re-affirmed, and 
some of them with added emphasis. A belief in three 
Divine persons was still demanded, and to each of these 
persons was assigned his own special office and preroga- 
tives. God, the Father, was represented as inflexibly 
severe, condemning to an eternity of suffering all who 
were not His avowed worshipers, — condemning them 
for no fault of their own, but for the sin of their first 
ancestor. His severity could not be appeased, except by 
the blood of a blameless victim; and that victim was 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


165 


found in the person of Jesus Christ, His only begotten 
Son, whom the Jews crucified. He was willing to relent 
in favor of those who should believe in the Son, and 
accept Him as the sacrifice for themselves. These 
should have everlasting life; but all others, including the 
countless millions who never heard His name, should 
burn in everlasting fire. No excellence of conduct and 
character, no measure of fidelity in keeping the Com- 
mandments, would be of the least avail, unless there were 
the positive assurance of faith in the atoning blood of 
the Lord Jesus. 

From the distance at which we stand in history, it is 
easy to understand the extreme doctrinal position taken 
by the leaders of the Reformation. The Romanists had 
laid special stress on good works, meaning by them in 
particular, gifts, bequests, and other benefactions whereby 
the Church, as an outward organization, was enriched, 
and her temporal power increased. To those who 
abounded in these works were promised the highest of 
heavenly rewards. Luther saw the necessity of pointing 
out a different road to heaven. He reasoned that man 
could only be saved by faith. The apostolic saying, 
“ The just shall live by Faith,” was always on his lips. 
In his translation of the Scriptures he even had the 
hardihood to add a word, and to translate the passage, 
“ The just shall live by Faith alone.” Thus in trying to 
avoid the Scylla of a corrupt ecclesiasticism he landed 
his followers on the Charybdis of Solifidianism. Nor 
was the latter doctrine without previous churchly sanc- 
tion. The reformers found it in the writings of Augustine 
and other Christian teachers of good repute, and in the 
public declarations of the Church itself. What Luther 
urged with characteristic boldness, Calvin enforced and 
elaborated with all the powers of his singularly acute 
mind. 


166 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


These and other considerations should show that thd 
Reformation, glorious as it was in certain respects, — as 
for instance, the restoring of the Bible to men, and 
insuring their inalienable right of private judgment, — 
was an improvement in methods, but not in essential 
principles. All impartial readers of history must admit 
that the corruption which was sown in the Dark Ages did 
not disappear at their close. Wars continued to be fiercely 
waged, crimes were still perpetrated in the name of 
Religion. If there was less of open violence there was 
more of deceit and hypocrisy than in the days of the 
crusades. The turning point was not reached, tho new 
age did not dawn, till Protestantism was two hundred 
and forty years old. 

One who was living at that period, and who had 
unusual opportunities for observation, — both natural and 
spiritual, — gives the following graphic description of the 
prevailing conditions. 

“ How few there are at this day who form their lives 
after the precepts of the Decalogue and other precepts of 
the Lord from a religious principle! How few there are 
at this day who desire to look their own evils in the face, 
and to perform actual repentance and thus enter upon 
worship of the life! Or, who among those that make pre- 
tensions to piety, perform any other repentance than that 
of the mouth, which consists in words only,— confessing 
themselves to be sinners, and praying, according to the 
doctrine of the Church, and that God the Father, for the 
sake of His Son, who suffered on the cross for their sins, 
took away their damnation and atoned for them with His 
blood, would mercifully forgive their transgressions, that 
so they might be presented without spot or blemish 
before His judgment seat? Who does hot see that this 
worship is that of the lungs only, and not of the heart, 
consequently, that it is external worship and not internal? 


dispensations of the church 


167 


jFor it is a prayer for the remission of sins, when yet man 
is not conscious of a single sin that he has; and if he did 
know of any, he would cover it over with favor and indul- 
gence, or with a faith that is to purify and absolve him, 
without any works of his.” (B. E. 52.) 

If, as we believe, this picture which Swedenborg 
gives of his own times is a truthful one, then indeed was 
the world ready for a new phase of Christian faith and 
life; then had the Church founded by the Lord and His 
apostles run its course, and reached its consummation. 

In the unfolding of the Divine plans, that Church has 
filled its own peculiar and important place; but now, the 
special state of mind and the special phase of human 
need to which it ministered, has passed away. The out- 
ward form of it exists, and may continue to exist, for a 
long time to come; but the spirit which was originally 
breathed into it has departed. Its glory is transferred 
elsewhere. 

The Lord our God has made a new revelation and is 
calling men to be joined with Him in a new covenant. 
While we turn our faces joyfully towards the sun rising, 
and cannot forget the darkness, iniquity and suffering 
from which it will deliver us, we remember that in the 
spiritual, no less than in the natural order of events, 
one day follows another, and we thank the Lord for what 
He has done for mankind through the Church of His 
First Advent. 

IY 

THE CHURCH OF THE SECOND ADVENT 

BY THE REV. LOUIS H. TAFEL 

The Church of the Second Advent is distinguished 
from the Church established by the Lord at His First 
Coming even as the Second Advent is distinguished 


168 


NEW - CHURCH CONGRESS 


from the First. The First Coming of the Lord was in 
a material body, and therefore limited to a certain place. 
His Second Coming is in His Divine Glorified Body, and 
therefore it is spiritual and universal. 

Nevertheless, when rationally viewed, there is a great 
similarity between the First and the Second Advents of 
the Lord, and the objects accomplished at these several 
manifestations. 

At the First Coming, the Lord took on Himself a 
material body which He glorified and thus rendered 
Divine and Omnipresent; at His Second Coming He 
revealed Himself in this Divine body, and disclosed the 
manner of the glorification of His Human, so that we 
may now, rationally, and with our whole heart and soul, 
worship Him, as the infinite God-Man. 

At His First Coming, the Lord also executed a general 
judgment in the spiritual world which is around us and 
within the natural world as the soul is in the body. Of 
this great work the Lord spoke when He said: “For 
judgment I am come into the world.” “Now is the judg- 
ment of this world, now shall the Prince of this world be 
cast out.” “I saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven.” 
In a similar way it is universally expected that at His 
Second Advent, the Lord will execute the Last Judg- 
ment. But, just as neither the Jews nor even the 
apostles saw anything of the J udgment executed at His 
First Coming, so little will men on earth see, or per- 
ceive anything of the Last Judgment; for it is executed 
not on the bodies of men, but on their spirits, which, 
unseen to us, inhabit the spiritual world around us. 

When this great truth concerning the Last Judgment 
is realized men may receive with something of patient 
attention the statement that the Last Judgment has taken 
place in the spiritual world, and that the Lord, with 
the angels of heaven, made His Second Coming visibly 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


169 


before the countless spirits assembled in the world of 
spirits below the heavens of the angels, and that this 
took place and was witnessed in the year 1757, by the 
servant of the Lord, Emanuel Swedenborg, whose spiritual 
eyes were opened for that purpose. 

As at His First Coming, so also at His Second, the 
Lord made a new revelation of Divine truth and a new 
Church founded on such revelation was raised up by Him 
in either case ; at His First Coming the Lord revealed the 
Word of the New Testament which completed and 
finished the Word of God; and on this revelation He 
founded the First Christian Church which has since 
spread over so large a part of the earth. But, at His Sec- 
ond Advent, the Lord revealed the hidden infinite love 
and wisdom contained in the internal senses of the Word, 
whereby it can be plainly seen, that the Word is indeed 
the work of the Infinite Creator, infallible and inerrable. 
This revelation is given in the writings of Emanuel 
Swedenborg, and on this revelation is founded the New 
Church, also called the Church of the New Jerusalem, 
which starting among few is destined, as we believe, from 
Holy Writ, to cover all the earth. In the revelation 
given to the New Church is unveiled the heavenly and 
Divine wisdom which lies hidden throughout, under 
the parables of the letter. For it also the Lord has 
taken away the veil behind which the spiritual world that 
is all around us lay hidden. 

We now see, that as in man the Lord is present in the 
inmost soul, thence in the spirit, and thereby in the body, 
so in the great universe, the Lord is present in the inmost 
as the center of all, — dwelling in the Sun of heaven, and 
is thence omnipresent in all the spiritual world, and 
through this, in the numberless suns and earths that con- 
stitute the natural world. The higher thus ever flows 
into the lower, filling it with its presence, and ruling it. 


170 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


Thus the heat of life, which is love, flowing from the 
Sun of heaven pervades all the spiritual world, and the 
spirits of men who are part of it; and this love gives 
life to all spirits and men. In the man of the Church of 
the Second Advent, this shows itself, even as it does with 
the angels of heaven, in love to the Lord, in love to his 
fellow -man, and in pure, conjugal love, which is the mystic 
tie that forms the homes on earth and the eternal homes 
in heaven, But the light of life that beams from the Sun 
of heaven is the glory of the Divine truth, which is the 
light of heaven, and is also “the light which lighteth 
every man that cometh into the world.” This is the light 
that guideth the man of the Second Advent, even as we 
read: “The city had no need of the Sun, neither of the 
moon, to shine in it, for the Glory of God does lighten 
it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof.” And from the 
breath of life breathed forth into the world by the Lord 
Jesus Christ from the Sun of Heaven, every heart in 
heaven and on earth pulsates and every lung draws breath, 
and thus evermore “ in Him we live and move and have 
our being.” 

The Church of the Second Advent is at the same time 
the Church of His continual presence. For to it, the 
Lord reveals Himself, even as He is, the Being of infinite 
Love, Wisdom and Power, at once, God and Man. To 
it He has revealed how the Human assumed in the 
Virgin Mary became glorified, and thus one with the 
Divine, so that in it now “dwelleth all the fullness of the 
Godhead bodily;” so that in worshiping the Lord Jesus 
Christ, the infinite God-Man, we really worship all the 
Godhead bodily. Since the Church of the Second 
Advent thus worships the visible God in whom dwells the 
invisible, she can be conjoined with Him with all the 
heart and soul, with all the mind and with all the 
strength; therefore she is called in the Word, “the 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


171 


Bride, the Lamb’s Wife.” While the Lord is thus ever- 
more near to His Church on the internal plane of her 
life, He also is present to her from without, in His Word. 
Nor does He speak to her from the letter only, but also 
from the now opened glory of the internal sense, and thus 
she can be continually guided and directed of the Lord 
in all her thoughts, and in all her desires, in all her 
words, and in all her deeds; thus the presence of her 
Lord is with her continually, and His presence is Peace! 
“And God wipes away all tears from their eyes, and there 
will be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain, for the former things are 
passed away.” 

As the nearness and One-ness of earth and heaven are 
realized, death loses all that used to make it grim and 
forbidding, and every sincere New- Churchman looks 
upon the spiritual world as his eternal home, where many 
that he loves are already living lives of eternal useful- 
ness, happiness and peace, and where all whom he loves 
will sooner or later (and in comparison with an unending 
eternity, it is always sooner ) be gathered together to 
dwell there forever. 

In the Church of the Second Advent, the words of 
the Lord are therefore literally fulfilled where He says: 
“He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.” 

And not only death is thus virtually at an end, but 
also sorrow, crying and pain. The troubles of the day 
lose most of their power of troubling when men realize 
that the Lord Jesus Christ, infinite in love, wisdom and 
power, is indeed present with each one of us continually, 
ready and willing to save, protect and guide, for then a 
great calm follows on the anxiety and unrest of the 
world’s busy strife. 

It will soon be realized, indeed, that even a life thus 
anchored on the Lord is not one of unvaried sunshine 


172 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


and calm, but misfortune and trials and temptations will 
then be received like the rain and the storm on earth, as 
merely another mode of making known to us our Lord’s 
love and mercy. 

The man of the New Church is not to be merely 
resigned to the ruling of the Divine Providence, but 
thankful and trustful in all the Divine ordering of his 
daily life, knowing that whether it seem to others fortu- 
nate or unfortunate, to him if he makes the right use of 
it, the orderings of the Divine Providence will but ever- 
more lead to greater perfection and happiness. 

Nor will the man of the New Church idly fold his 
hands and wait for a palpable Divine guidance, which 
never comes because it is not useful; but he will train 
his understandings to the utmost, so that he may the 
better understand his Lord’s will, and he will train his 
will to loyal, unwavering obedience to the Divine Will, 
when thus revealed; and in thus fully doing his Lord’s 
will from love, he will find the highest happiness and 
peace. To root out what is false and evil in himself and all 
around him, and to cultivate what is true and good, 
heavenly and Divine, acknowledging that in this heavenly 
life all the life and power comes from the Lord alone, is 
the very essence of the life of the Church, — the Second 
Coming; and as it spreads upon the earth, all evils and 
imperfections on the religious, the civil and the social 
planes will disappear, and love and wisdom, order and 
happiness, — the kingdom of the Lord, — will come, and His 
will be done as in heaven, so also upon the earth, for the 
Lord’s Church will then be, as it is intended, His heaven 
upon earth. 

The Church of the Second Advent differs from the 
Church of the First Advent lastly in this, that it remains 
forever. The Church of the First Advent had its limit 
set from the beginning in the promised Second Advent 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


173 


of the Son of Man, with power and great glory. But, 
after the Second Coming, no farther advent is spoken of 
in the Word of God, therefore also the Golden City, the 
New Jerusalem, which describes the Church of the 
Second Advent, is the last and crowning vision of the 
Word, so that the New Church is to be forever the Lord’s 
Tabernacle with men on earth, in which he will contin- 
ually dwell with them, making all things new. 

“He which testifieth these things saith: Surely I 
come quickly.” And the Church of the Second Advent 
lovingly replies: “Even so, come Lord Jesus. Amen!” 

Y 

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT OF THE NEW CHURCH 
BY REV. THOMAS A. KING 

Catholicity can be predicated only of a Church because 
a Church to be such must involve in its doctrinal structure 
the universals of a true faith and a real salvation. The 
Christian Church rent, torn and divided into hundreds of 
sects does not in any of its almost numberless persuasions 
present the true idea of catholicity. 

When our Lord was crucified his outer garment was 
divided among the soldiers; and by the rending of the 
Son of Man’s garment was prophetically set forth the 
rending of the outer robe of the Divine word by the war- 
ring sects of Christendom; the fact that each sect as it 
arose and entered the arena as a combatant for its special 
dogma cut from the garment of the Son of Man that 
part which seemed to confirm its doctrines. These sects 
stand for certain phases of religious doctrines and are 
special in their relation to the great body of religious 
truth. They are organized expressions of special theories 


174 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


of Faith and plans of salvation espoused by their 
founders, theories upon which sufficient emphasis is laid 
to give them a distinct form and existence. 

These sects have been dignified by the name of 
“ churches,” but when the true idea of what a Church is 
becomes clearly fixed in the mind it is seen that the name 
of Church cannot with any propriety be applied to them. 
They are simply religious persuasions, the special forms 
of whose dogmas commend them to man, and attract to 
them those who believe that doctrine is formulated by 
councils and in no sense a Divine revelation. 

Special pleaders for certain human theories and 
human interpretations of the letter of the word, none of 
them can in any just sense be called Catholic, for the 
simple reason that the true Catholic Church is a Divine 
whole im olving universal principles. It does not stand 
up to plead for special dogmas; its doctrines are one; a 
splendid unity pervades them; so that the acceptance of 
one of its doctrines leads logically to the acceptance of all. 

The doctrines of the true Catholic Church are the 
doctrines of the internal sense of the Word illustrated 
and confirmed by the letter; they are the inner vesture 
of the Son of Man; they are woven without seam from 
top to bottom; they are a magnificent whole. 

Where shall we look for such a Church ? The doc- 
trines of the New Jerusalem furnish the basis of a truly 
Catholic Church; and when I say that the New Jerusalem 
is the true and only Catholic Church I do so on the 
grounds of no human authority, I do so on the basis of 
no man’s ipse dixit, but solely on the authority of that 
Divine Word which is forever settled in the heavens. 

The Lord when he was in the world distinctly fore- 
told the end of the Church which was established 
through the ministry of the apostles. “The sun shall be 
darkened and the moon shall fail to give her light and 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


175 


the stars shall fall from heaven,” these were the words in 
which the Son of Man portrayed the consummation of 
love, faith, and spiritual intelligence in the Church. 
Where these are dead the Church is dead, and that these 
elements of the Church perished is a matter of history. 

It is true that magnificent cathedrals lifted their 
proud spires to the heavens, that choirs chanted holy 
psalms, that men said litanies on bended knees, that 
elaborate rituals were observed, and that pews were 
crowded ; yet the heavenly soul of the Church had departed. 
The intellectual and moral degradation of Christianity 
is a matter of history. You all know how from the doc- 
trine of the tri -personality of the Divine Being, a doctrine 
formulated by the Council of Nice, there flowed those 
baleful influences that crystallized into error after error 
until finally the Headship of Jesus Christ was denied and 
Christendom shrouded in moral darkness. 

This bad moral state of Christendom was due to the 
fact that as men from the Christian world migrated to the 
spiritual, they perpetuated there the evils and falsities of 
the Church on earth, and there they hung like thick 
black clouds, shutting out the light of the Divine truth. 

The Second Coming of the Lord brought the Church 
into judgment; for the Lord’s Second Advent was the 
opening of the internal sense of the Word through the 
agency of a man prepared for that mission. The Son of 
Man came. Light Divine flowed from His open Word. 
The imaginary heavens in the world of spirits departed 
as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every island and 
mountain were moved out of their places. 

The passing away of these evil and false conditions 
was effected by the Last Judgment; for as the light of the 
open word flowed forth it brought into immediate judg- 
ment the Church as it existed in the world of spirits. 
The Lord’s coming and the consequent judgment it 


176 


NEW CHURCH CONGRESS 


wrought inaugurated the great spiritual movement, the 
influences of which when they reached the earth aroused 
men from their spiritual slumber and opened their eyes 
to see the rising of a new sun and the dawn of a new 
age. From the new heaven, new as contrasted with the 
imaginary heavens, there descended the holy city New 
Jerusalem. That city seen in vision was the symbol of 
the New Church in its doctrinal aspect. 

The descending New Jerusalem is therefore the coming 
into human thought and life of the Church of the latter- 
day glory of the Lord. It stands not for a sect but for 
a new dispensation of Religion. It is here, not as it will 
be in the ages to come, but as it must be in its infancy. 
At present it is with a few, but its doctrines are not the 
coinage of the human brain, not specialized expressions 
of man’s self-derived intelligence, but doctrine whose 
origin is in God and whose descent from him is in the 
form of a city fair to behold, golden and beautiful, and 
the full measure of a man. 

The New Church is not, therefore, a new sect in 
Christendom. It is here not as a rival to any existing 
form of faith, Christian or pagan. It is not a combatant 
in the arena of theology. It is a new Religion. It 
leaves the sects where they are; and is as distinct from 
the first Christian dispensation as it was from the Jewish. 
A truly Catholic Church, its spirit is one of deep love 
for all the heavenly Father’s children; a magnificent 
city, it has gates of beautiful pearl that open and afford 
entrance to all God’s children, wherever they may be. 

It is the crown of all the dispensations. All that the 
preceding religious dispensations contained, the New 
Church possesses. It comes as the full revelation of 
God to man, the completion, the climax of Divine dis- 
closures. The New Church does not come to destroy, but 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


177 


to fulfill. It comes with new light to enable all the sects to 
come into fuller freedom of thought and into a Diviner 
worship of the Son of Man. It has in its Divinely 
revealed system of truth what the Christian world needs, 
the very light for which good and earnest souls are pray- 
ing. It comes to lay its hand on the sick and recover 
them. To proclaim the Gospel of the Headship and 
eternal reign of Jesus Christ, and thus to restore to 
Christianity its lost glory and enable it to go forth 
conquering and to conquer. 

But by the New Church I would have no one under- 
stand the external organization so-called. Our organiza- 
tion is simply the agent of the Church; it is human, but 
the doctrines revealed are Divine and beautifully 
Catholic in their spirit. They involve universal princi- 
ples and are applicable to man in all ages of the world 
and under all conditions of life. The organization called 
the New Church, formed as it is of those who openly avow 
their faith in the new revelation, is the custodian of the 
heavenly doctrines; but, as all organizations are human 
and of necessity subject to human imperfection and 
limitation, therefore, the organized New Church does not 
contain all and does not express all that is meant by a 
New Church; for, as the sphere of the individual overruns 
the boundaries of his personality and propagates itself in 
other lives, so the New Church as the Lord’s kingdom on 
earth extends its influence and saving truth far beyond 
the boundaries of our local organizations. And this, 
because its doctrines are Catholic; its mission is to God’s 
children all over the world; its spirit one of universal 
brotherliness, and its purpose in the world as free from 
sectarianism as the Divine love itself. 

The catholic spirit of the New Jerusalem grows out 
of the absolutely catholic character (1) of its doctrine 


178 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


concerning the Lord, (2) of its doctrine concerning the 
Sacred Scripture, (3) of its doctrine concerning the life of 
faith and charity. 

The doctrine of the Divine Humanity, the great truth 
that Jehovah descended and assumed the human, and by a 
process of glorification united it to Himself, thereby 
making a permanent Theophany and affording a channel 
of the communication of the infinite life to the children of 
men, at the same time making the Divine visible to 
thought under the human form. This doctrine is fully 
catholic in its spirit. The universal fatherhood of God 
is revealed in it, and it has that in it which no sectarian 
conception of God has, namely the great truth that the 
incarnation was prompted by the movements of the 
Divine love, a love not for a favored few but for every 
child on this and all other habitable earths in the universe. 
And not only is the doctrine of the New Jerusalem, 
concerning the Lord, catholic, a doctrine which brings 
the saving love of the groat Father to all men, but it 
furnishes the only true foundation for a united catholic 
Christianity; for when the glorious evangel of the New 
Church is heard and believed, Christianity will become 
one at its very center, dne in its thought of the Lord 
Jesus Christ; and that will give us in fullness what we 
now have in its mere infancy, the true Catholic Church, 
with a spirit broad, deep and universal, the spirit of 
brotherhood, born of Him who said: “ He that seeth Me 
seeth the Father.” 

Again, the doctrine of the Sacred Scripture gives to 
the New Church the spirit of true catholicity, and makes 
it impossible for sectarianism to exist within her gates. 
The Word is Divine in its inmost, for there the Lord is 
who is the Word; then it has its spiritual sense with its 
discreet degrees of truth, and as an ultimate of all its 
contents, the letter in which dwells all the fullness of 


DISPENSATIONS OF THE CHURCH 


179 


power. This doctrine of the Word lifts it out of all that is 
limited and local and teaches how it connects the Church 
on earth with the Church in heaven, how even those who 
are outside the pale of the Church are reached by its 
sphere, as the blood reaches from its center, through 
the action of the heart, all parts of the human body. 
This heavenly doctrine of the Word makes the New 
Church catholic in spirit. Founded upon the Divine 
Word it goes where the Word goes and' touches with its 
influence every heart that is really touched by the 
sphere of the Word. But the New Church would not be 
a truly Catholic Church if it recognized only the letter of 
revelation; for that would limit its power and influence. 
It therefore accepts the letter as merely the body of the 
Divine soul of the Word, and believes that through the 
sphere of its internal sense the Lord is present through 
“the multitude of the heavenly host,” not only with 
those who reverently read its letter, but also through 
the propagation of its holy sphere in the spiritual world, 
with all who are in good all over the world. 

The Word is not only here among men, but also in 
heaven; so that where men are in touch with heaven be 
they heathen or Christian, there the sphere of the Word 
is. “Forever Thy Word is established in heaven.” 

The Church that has this divine faith in the Word 
must of necessity be a truly catholic Church with a 
genuine catholic spirit, and with a deep love for God’s 
children wherever they may be, or under whatever form 
of Religion they may have been reared. 

(3) The catholic spirit of the New Jerusalem is seen 
again in its absolutely catholic doctrine of life. A most 
beautiful catholicity pervades this doctrine. There are 
no limits set to the Divine love, and salvation is not 
proclaimed as the result of subscribing to a mere creed, 
neither are the gates of heaven closed to those who are 
outside the pale of the Church. 


180 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


“ All religion has relation to life, and life of religion 
is to do good.” “ The first thing of charity is to shun 
evils as sins, and the second thing of charity is to do 
good.” These statements involve catholic or universal 
principles, and are applicable to all Religions. They 
overleap the barriers of sects and make the love of God 
and the love of the neighbor, the sole essence of religion 
and therefore the ground of salvation. God in His Divine 
Human is present with all men to inspire them with 
goodness of life from Himself, and wherever men look 
up to that which really brings into their consciousness 
the desire to be good and do good they find our Father; 
and He puts His arms around them and leads them to 
His heaven whether they be heathen or Christian. 

Salvation is spiritual character; and all who live 
according to the light of their Religion will be saved, 
because religion is life. 

Now this glorious doctrine of life must give to the 
New Jerusalem a broad and warm catholic spirit, and 
eyes to see and love to recognize good of life under what- 
ever form of Faith it may have been lived. 

Thus on this earth we have a true Catholic Church, 
with a true catholic spirit, growiDg out of genuinely 
catholic doctrines, even the Holy City which John saw 
descending from God out of Heaven, whose twelve gates 
of pearl open to all in whose hearts there is a love of 
the Divine Man and a desire to do his will. Amen. 


CHAPTER III 


ITS DOCTRINES THE BASIS OF A 
UNIVERSAL FAITH AND CHARITY 

I 

THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD 
BY BEV. JOHN GODDARD 

The deepest yearning of the human heart, when it 
awakens from its earthly dream, is to know God; the 
living, loving God. There is no permanent rest until He 
is found. Nor is this need supplied in any wise by 
thinking of Him merely as the infinite, the absolute, a 
primal cause, a blind force, an unfathomable mystery. 
Humanity feels its childish helplessness, its need of a 
parent’s love and protecting care. It longs for a God 
who is also man — who knows His children by name, 
and who can be known by them — one to whom they can 
go, one who can come to them ; one who can say : “Come 
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest.” 

This desire for, this faith in, and this search after the 
God-Man is the one vital theme of all religious history. 
Obscure or clear, the Christ idea is universal. Its 
remotest expression is the idol or the fetich; but the 
intelligence of the world seems always to have believed 
in and looked for the coming of a Divine Man. The tra- 
ditions or records of the ancient nations reflect, however 
dimly or distortedly, the one great truth which gives life 
and unity to all the diverse Bible books, — the promise, 
with its fulfillment in the advent, of the Divine Savior. 

The very sibyls and symbols of the heathen world bear 

181 


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witness to the same great expectation, until, at the birth 
of the Prince of Peace at Bethlehem, the temple of 
Janus at Rome, whose gates were always open in seasons 
of war, is for the first time shut, and the oracles are 
silent forever. 

In this universal longing to behold the face of the 
Divine Father we recognize that the creator has made of 
one blood all the families of the earth; and while they 
are as yet sheep of different folds, yet this yearning after 
the one Shepherd is the promise of that future time 
when all shall be gathered into one great fold. 
(John x: 16.) 

The coming Messiah is described by the prophet as 
“the Desire of all nations” (Haggai ii: 7); and this tells 
not only of the existence of a universal prophecy among all 
nations respecting His coming, but that He who was to 
be born at Bethlehem would satisfy all hearts’ desires. 
For we read in Revelation (xiii: 8) that the Lamb of God 
slain on Calvary was “the Lamb slain from the founda- 
tion of the world.” Need it hurt our faith to hear, in 
the history of ancient nations, of Christs born of Virgins 
and crucified before Jesus came? If Abraham saw in 
vision the Savior’s day, and was made glad at the sight 
(John viii: 56), might not other men behold Him too? 
Alive to the leading facts of His life through prophecy 
and vision, is it strange that they should invest certain 
strong or good men with the halo of the expected Savior, 
even as the Jews (Luke iii: 15) were disposed to do with 
John the Baptist? Is it not thus that a Zoroaster, a 
Guatama or a Caesar have found a place among the stars? 
And is not this the reason that the story of a Thor, a 
Jason or a Hercules have lived on to tell of the mighty 
deeds of Him who cometh from Edom, with dyed 
garments from Bozrah, treading the wine press alone? 
(Isaiah lxiii: 1-3.) 


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183 


Judging, then, of the Religion of the future by that 
of the past, the human heart will always demand a God 
who, though unthinkable and invisible on His infinite 
side, shall yet be visible and lovable on His human side. 
And can we doubt that He, — whose history, according 
to eminent legal authority, would stand in a court of 
law; of whom Napoleon at St. Helena said, “I know 
men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man;” and 
whose coming has the most profoundly and permanently 
stirred humanity, will, — when the Churches shall arrive at 
a right understanding and love of Him, be the one object 
of worship, the Light of all the world? 

But who shall satisfy the intellect and heart of this 
age as to His Divinity? The heart may rest satisfied 
but the intellect of this age of universal enlightenment 
is raising puzzling questions. How can the Infinite 
become finite? It was enough to the disciples of old to 
take on trust the word of one who had lived His perfect life, 
and who by His power had raised the dead, when He told 
them that whoever saw Him saw the Divine Father (John 
xiv: 8, 9) for whom the human heart yearns. But Jesus 
saw that the time would come when more than this would 
be needed. Shall all the lower stories of the human 
mind become developed by education, and the higher or 
religious mind be starved for want of spiritual nutri- 
ment, stand still in bigotry, or relapse into unbelief? 
Shall Religion forever debar the intellect from its coun- 
cils? It would seem that Jesus recognized the need of 
more knowledge when He promised to come as soon as 
men could bear it, and “show them plainly of the 
Father.” (John xvi: 12, 13, 25.) Was there ever a greater 
need of the fulfillment of this promise than now ? 

We believe that the promise is fulfilled, and that a 
new revelation has been given. One result is, a rational 


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unfolding of the mystery of the Incarnation, whose barest 
outlines only, can now be portrayed. We behold in Jesus 
“the Word made flesh.” (John i: 14.) This means 
that the advent was the culmination of an orderly series 
of descents or revelations of the Divine wisdom, or truth, 
or “ the Word,” in orderly adaptation to the various states 
and needs of man, until, in the “ fullness of time ” God 
came in Person. 

Differently from any man, J esus Christ was conceived 
of God, and born of the Virgin. From the human race 
in both worlds, and by heredity through Mary, He clothed 
His Divinity, in the time of the lowest moral condition of 
the race, with a finite nature like our own, rendering that 
nature open and inclined to every kind of human infirmity. 
The Bible clearly indicates that temptation comes from 
invisible sources, and personifies the various evil influ- 
ences of hell under the title of “ Satan,” or “the devil.” 
Jesus, by virtue of His earthly heredity, became a shining 
mark for their attacks, while from His Divine side He 
could resist and overcome. His whole life in the world 
was a process of overcoming all these evil and selfish 
inclinations. This was the great “ sacrifice,”— the sacri- 
fice of every form of self-love, surface or profound. 

The result upon the hells was to remove what was 
then their inordinate power. Their insane desire to 
exert universal dominion, and to destroy the influence of 
the Lord and the angels over men, was checked. The 
prophet tells of it, and so does Jesus. “How art thou 
fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning,” etc. 
(Is. xiv: 9-15.) “I saw Satan as lightning fall from 
heaven.” (Luke x: 17-20.) The Lord’s overcoming of 
the powers of hell was an act of mercy even to the evil, 
since the unbridled exercise of selfish lusts always brings 
with it the greatest sufferings. 


NEW-CfiURCU DOCTRINES 


185 


The result upon the human race was, redemption from 
the overwhelming influence of the hells, the restoration of 
spiritual freedom, the nearer presence of the Lord and 
the angels in human hearts and human affairs. 

The result upon the nature which He assumed from 
the race through the Virgin was, that little by little that 
nature, with all its tendencies to evil, and with all its 
limitations, was forever put away, and in the place of it 
the Divine nature descended to abide forever with men, 
to be the Emmanuel or “God with us.” 

While in the world, and subject to the influences of 
hell, our Lord possessed a separate consciousness from 
the Divine, making Him speak of God and to God as of 
and to another; but after victory in temptation, there was 
a nearer consciousness of the Divine. In the one state 
He said: “I can of mine own self do nothing;” in the 
other He said: “He that seeth me seeth Him that sent 
me.” And after the full “glorification,” or putting off of 
His assumed nature, the consciousness of unity became 
perfect and permanent. In this state He said “All power 
is given unto me in heaven and earth.” Therefore we 
think of the glorified Jesus not as of a separate person from 
the Father, but we think of Him as God embodied or 
made visible or manifest to our thoughts and affections, 
just as our bodies in this world make our minds or real 
selves manifest to each other. So God in Jesus Christ 
becomes to men thinkable and lovable. Not only through 
the gospel picture, or from the outside, but form within 
the human soul, His own Holy Spirit, which is Himself, 
can draw near and bear witness to our spirits that we are 
the children of God, and bring peace to our troubled 
hearts, provided we follow Him by sacrificing our own 
selfish lives, and laying them down daily for the brethren. 
The Holy spirit is nearer now, because Jesus is glorified. 
(John vii: 39.) 13 


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Practically, liow does this teaching affect our idea of 
God, and what are its results upon those who receive it 
and love it? It does not destroy or injure the thought of 
the intelligent man about God’s infinite attributes. But 
it tells us that the infinite God, on His human side, is 
able to draw near to and satisfy the needs of every child 
of His. It tells us that God is pure and perfect love, and 
that as fast as our souls grow, through practical sub- 
mission and daily obedience to His words and spirit, into 
harmony with His unselfishness, that He will be able to 
fill us with His own inward grace and peace, which is the 
human creature’s greatest blessing. There is nothing in 
the Divine infinity which contradicts this Divine Humanity. 
God does not live for Himself, for He is infinite unselfish- 
ness, but for His children, who are made in His own 
image. Infinity means simply love ivithout limit , — love 
for an infinite number of human beings and for what is 
eternal or immortal in them. Infinity means, too, the 
perfect Divine care over the least as well as the largest 
affairs of life. This doctrine means, therefore, the removal 
of any temptation to bow down before mere power or 
greatness, whether in the form of nature’s destructive 
forces, or before some evil or selfish power behind them- 
One object of worship, and only one, rises before our 
minds. It is One who answers the highest requirements 
of the soul. We are not taught, after the simplicity of 
childhood is past, to think of God from the idea of Christ 
as He appeared on earth, God is not to be thought of as 
the carpenter or the carpenter’s son, — the weary or 
suffering one; but we are taught to think of Christ from 
the idea of God, thus from the thought of the infinite and 
perfect God coming down to reach His children in their 
lowest estate. If it seems to any mind a degradation of 
the thought of the infinite God, we reply that, on the 
contrary, it is clearly the most spiritual and uplifting 


NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINES 


187 


thought of God that is possible. As it suggests a more 
ennobling and intelligent idea of the great sun to study 
the effect of a few rays coming down to our little garden 
spots, making the flowers to spring up and the birds to 
sing, than to study its great and distant orb directly, and 
to learn of its vast size, and its chemical elements and of 
its blind, stupendous forces, so the effect on mind and 
heart of God manifesting Himself in Jesus Christ is far 
more ennobling than the attempt to rest in or to fathom 
the mysteries of Infinity. For the tendency of those who 
believe only in the infinite and unknowable and imper- 
sonal Deity is to cease to look upward for one’s help, and 
rely on one’s own power. The tendency is to confuse the 
distinction between God and the human soul; and, if out- 
ward morality is preserved, there is still lacking the 
humility which alone can prevent man from taking credit 
to himself for his good deeds, and making of himself a 
whited sepulchre. “Without me,’’ said Jesus, “ye can 
do nothing.” Not necessarily without Him as we know 
of Him through the Gospels; but without a personal, 
revealable, approachable God. It is “ a power not our- 
selves ” which makes for real heavenly character; and, 
unless in our hearts we acknowledge that power, we take 
to ourselves the merit which is God’s alone. We are 
spiritual thieves and robbers. We climb up some other 
way than through the door. (John x: 1.) There is, 
therefore, a need of faith in God as well as visible good 
works. And there is need of faith in Christ , though not 
necessarily under the name of Christ. The faith in 
Christ may be, and is, in some degree, realized whenever, 
as in ages past, there is a longing and expectation of a 
manifestation of a loving God in or through the human 
form. In this expectation, in some degree, dwells the 
Divine Humanity, the spirit and power of Jesus Christ, 
without whom we can do nothing. 


188 NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 

This doctrine of Divine Humanity, the oneness of 
God in Jesus Christ, meets the need of the human heart 
in its simplicity and in its wisdom. The Man of the 
Gospels, in His tender love, answers to the wants of 
children and of all who are in childlike states; while the 
picture of the glorified Lord, lifted up on high, answers 
to the wants of the wisest. It is a doctrine which will 
meet the hearts of all, as before, and will not offend the 
rationality of any; for it will harmonize at once with 
the universal longing for a visible and lovable and 
approachable Deity, and with that perception, implanted 
deep within every human mind, that God is one in 
essence and in Person. It is in harmony with the earliest 
Christian idea of Christ, who was regarded, not as a 
separate Being from the Divine Father, but His visibilty 
or earthly expression — the sole object of love and vener- 
ation. For the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
calls ■ Him the “ brightness of the Father’s glory, and 
the express image of His Person;” and Paul said, in 
Him is “the Fullness of the Godhead bodily;” and 
the beloved disciple calls Him the “ true God and eternal 
life.” (Heb. i: 1-3; and I John v:,20.) 

This doctrine of Jesus Christ meets trinitarian 
Christians with a rational idea of what the Trinity 
really is, and removes its former insoluble mystery. 
The trine is simply the trine of soul, body and operation — 
God infinite and invisible; God thinkable, revealable and 
visible; and God active in human souls and experience, 
redeeming and loving. 

It meets the Unitarian mind with the rational decla- 
ration that God is one in Person and in essence; that the 
Christ who in the Gospels is represented as the Son of 
God, suffering and tempted and praying and dying, was 
indeed separate and possessed another consciousness from 
God while in the -world, and under the influence of the 


NEW -CHURCH DOCTRINES 


189 


mind taken from the human race. He was indeed the 
Son of God born in time, but not a Son from eternity; 
the Son of God, however, in a far different sense from 
that which declares that all men are sons of God; for His 
inmost soul from conception, unlike any other man’s, 
was Divine. 

We claim, therefore, that this teaching meets the 
highest and noblest yearnings of the human soul; that it 
accords with reason and Scripture, when Scripture is 
rightly understood; that it explains the differences in 
Christian doctrine on this subject, and corrects its errors; 
that it leaves men free to -worship the Christ who has 
been dear to all human hearts in ages past, while it opens 
their understandings to a rational, ennobling, practical 
idea of God. It meets the real wants of all intelligent 
men, — all except those who want no God above them- 
selves; or those who look for salvation through the merits 
of a Christ working out a vicarious sacrifice, and saving 
man through faith alone. 

“Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” 
implored Philip in the large upper room, when he learned 
that Jesus was about to leave them forever. (John xiv: 
8.) They knew that their allegiance was due to that 
Father to whcm Jesus always deferred, but how could 
they approach Him, the Invisible One, and love Him, as 
they had learned to love Jesus? If they could only see 
God as they had seen Jesus — real, lovable, tender, for- 
giving — that would suffice; that would fully satisfy. 
Listen to his reply, His explanation to the twelve alone, 
in the esoteric gospel ; hear His deepest, truest, tenderest 
parting message to those whom He had loved so long, 
and who were to carry His message to the world: “No 
man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had 
known me, ye wou’d have known my Father also; and 
from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. 


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Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father and it 
sufficeth us. Jesus answered, have I been so long time 
with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He 
that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest 
thou then shew us the Father?” (John xiv: 6-9.) 


II 

THE DOCTRINE OF REDEMPTION 
BY REV. JOHN PRESLAND, LONDON 

Webster defines the theological meaning of Redemp- 
tion as “The procuring of God’s favor by the suffering 
and death of Christ; the ransom or deliverance of sinners 
from the bondage of sin and the penalties of God’s 
violated law.” Thus he exhibits God’s anger and justice 
as the chief perils from which sinners were redeemed. 
The doctrines of the New Church, on the other hand, 
describes Redemption as “the subjugation of the hells, 
and the arrangement into order of the heavens; and the 
preparation thereby for a new and spiritual Church {T. 
C. R. 115): these, therefore, represent hell and evil 
as the only dangers from which men were delivered. 

So far from declaring that sinners were in any sense 
redeemed from God, the Scriptures assert “Thou wast 
slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of 
every kindred and tongue and people and nation” (Rev. 
v: 9.) Indeed, God Himself is exhibited as the 
Redeemer, and the dangers from which He delivered us 
as those arising from the hostility of His and our 
enemies. Thus Zacharias, in immediate anticipation of 
the Incarnation “was filled with the Holy Ghost and 
prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; 
for He hath visited and redeemed His people and 


NEW- CHURCH DOCTRINES 


191 


hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the 
house of His servant David, as He spake by the mouth 
of His holy prophets, who have been since the world 
began; that we should be saved from our enemies and 
from the hand of all that hate us; that he would grant 
unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our 
enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and 
righteousness before Him all the days of our life.’’ (Luke 
i: 67, 71, 74, 75.) The Jews, interpreting Old Testament 
prophecy with gross literalism, supposed these enemies 
to be their Roman oppressors, and rejected a Messiah who 
repudiated any intention of political enfranchisement, 
and who declared “My kingdom is not of the world.” 
(John viii: 36.) The Apostle Paul, however, rightly 
described these adversaries: “We wrestle not against 
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, 
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against 
spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph. vi: 12.) The 
danger arising from their assaults was most real. The 
spiritual world, where they dwelt, is not remote from 
this; it is in close proximity; indeed we are even now its 
denizens, and nothing is needed to reveal its phenomena 
but that opening of the eyes of the spiritual body, — the 
soul animating the material form — which Scripture so 
frequently records. There, in the vast busy world of 
spirits intermediate between heaven and hell, is the first 
abode of all who pass from earth; where they come into 
that free intercourse with each other, and with those who 
have previously entered their final condition, whether 
among the blest or the unhappy, which is, essentially, the 
means of judgment. Thus the ga'hering together of 
representatives from each of the great divisions of the 
spiritual world is there. The angels, who are all “minis- 
tering spirits” (Heb. i: 14), and who encamp about them 
that fear the Lord to deliver them (Psalm xxxiv: 7) are 


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NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


there. It was there that Elisha’s servant saw them when 
his eyes were opened (II Kings vi:17), and that all the 
other seers witnessed their various visions. There, too, 
are our tempters; “hellish foes, confederate for our 
harm.” Both classes, moreover are continually recruited 
by spirits passing from the world. It is a fallacy to sup- 
pose that a man’s influence ceases here when he is 
removed hither. Rather are its force and subtlety 
increased, becahse exerted on those inward planes of life 
which supply the springs of action. Thus the good 
passing hence strengthen and help those struggling 
upwards here, while the evil are still active to entice and 
betray. For this reason, gross and wicked periods of 
history always tend to perpetuate themselves. As gener- 
ations of selfish men and women pass into the other 
world they swell the aggregate of malign and perilous 
influences operating upon this. At the time of the 
Incarnation such preponderance of iniquity had reached 
its utmost limits. Legions of infernals, thronging the 
world of spirits, interposed like a thick cloud between 
man and the Divine Sun, and intercepted the free descent 
of His saving heat and light; the angels whose joy is 
found in the repentance of sinners and their exaltation 
to goodness and blessing, were straitened in their benefi- 
cent activities and delights, and heaven itself conse- 
quently impaired; while on earth hell had gained such 
ascendency that its tyranny prevailed over the very 
bodies of mankind, and added to the gloomy catalogue 
of “ills that flesh is heir to” the yet blacker horror of 
demoniacal possession. 

At that crisis of our race’s history, therefore, “ the 
Lord God of Israel Himself visited and redeemed His 
people” (Luke i:68), That He would do so had been 
abundantly prophesied. Continually we read declara- 
tions like the following: “As for our Redeemer, Jehovah 


NEW CHURCH DOCTRINES 


193 


of Hosts is. His name” (Isa. xlvii:4); “Thus saith 
Jehovah, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am 
Jehovah, thy God ” (xlviii:17) ; “ All flesh shall know that 
I, Jehovah, am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the 
mighty one of Jacob ” (xlix:26); “ In His love and in His 
pity He Redeemed them. . . . Thou, O Jehovah, 

art our Father, our Redeemer; Thy name is from ever- 
lasting ” (lxhi:9, 16). The reason is, because “ Redemp- 
tion was a work purely Divine ” (T. C. R., 123), requiring 
for its accomplishment no less a power than the arm of 
omnipotence. Even this, moreover, would have proved 
ineffectual unless extended into conditions other than 
those proper to unmodified Deity. For any force to 
operate, it must manifestly exist upon the plane where 
its energy is needed. For Divine omnipotence to accom- 
plish the Redemption of mankind, therefore, it was neces- 
sary to bring it down to the sphere of human degradation 
and bondage. In Himself, Jehovah is the “ high and 
lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy ” 
(Isa. lvii :1 5). To enable Him to reach our perishing 
race, therefore, and the hellish crew who were hurrying 
it to destruction, it was essential to clothe Divinity in 
a nature which could come into contact with evil; in 
other words, “ Redemption could not have been effected 
except by God incarnated. . . . For who can attack 

an enemy unless he draw near to him and be equipped 
with weapons for the fight?” (T. C. R., 124). More 
than this: to afford the required arena whereon the 
Redeemer could meet and overcome our spiritual foes, 
the humanity assumed by Jehovah must have been sus- 
ceptible to our weaknesses and evils. The process 
whereby our Lord met and subdued our spiritual enemies 
was the conflict of temptation ; He “ was in all points 
tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. iv:15). 
To experience temptation however, a nature must 


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NEW CHURCH CONGRESS 


include the infirmities to which evil can appeal. Essential 
Deity, being absolutely perfect, is incapable of such 
solicitation. “ God cannot be tempted with evil ” 
(James i:13); wherefore, to effect Redemption He took 
to Himself a nature which could be so assailed, and 
through the maternal function of the Virgin Mary, 
“raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His 
servant David ” (Luke i:69). Inheriting through the 
mother the tendencies inseparable from this genealogy, — 
to which were added those of the more remote progenitor, 
Judah, — the Son of God was indeed sent “ in the likeness 
of sinful flesh” (Rom. viii:8), and thus provided means 
for the fullest conflict and most complete victory. In 
very truth, “ Jehovah made to meet on Him the iniquity 
of us all” (Isa. liii:6). The First became the Last; the 
Alpha was also the Omega; in order that He might 
thereby leach to redeem and save the last and lowest. 
Burdened with this heredity, there was no depth, no 
foulness, no malignity of hell which could not, and did 
not, hurl itself against the Redeemer; while, since He 
invariably triumphed over every such assault, there is no 
diabolical or satanic power which He did not conquer, 
and from which we are not delivered. Thus He reduced 
the hells to subjection, and expelling from the world of 
spirits the legions of darkness that infested it; He 
restored a free outlet for the activities of the angels, 
thereby arranging the heavens in order, and preparing 
for the descent therefrom of a new spiritual Church upon 
the earth. 

The question arises, however, how does this doctrine 
harmonize with the “new song” wherewith the heavens 
praised the Lamb? — “Thou wast slain and hast redeemed 
us to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue 
and people and nation” (Rev. v:9) and with the many 
similar declarations of the apostles ? Evidently something 


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195 


beyond bare literalism is required to explain these 
references. The most rigid advocate for a simply natural 
interpretation must acknowledge that the Lord’s blood, 
as mentioned in Scripture, often, if not, indeed, always, 
means more than the material stream which flowed 
from His wounds in Calvary. We can neither drink this 
nor be washed therein, yet unless we so apply our Savior’s 
blood we have no life or cleanness (John vi: 53; Rev. i: 8). 
How, then, are these allusions to be understood? 

Firstly, as an everyday metaphor for violence and death, 
blood is appropriately used in the Bible to denote the 
intense suffering inseparable from our Lord’s redeeming 
work. Even we know, in some measure, the torture of a 
mind divided against itself, in which the goodness and 
purity which are loved and honored, albeit too feebly, are 
assailed by mistrust and doubt, and seem in danger of 
destruction. Yet, what is the extremity of our anguish 
compared with His, in whom the spotless innocence of 
the Lamb of God was exposed to the perilous lusts and 
blasphemies of the abyss; with the consciousness besides 
that to yield would have meant the failure of the ends 
for which He came on earth, the eternal and hopeless 
ruin of the human race ? Ranged with the mental stress 
of these conflicts, the bodily pains of the scourge, the 
thorns, the nails, the weariness and thirst, though among 
the bitterest which human cruelty could inflict, were 
almost light. Without them our deliverance would have 
been impossible; they were unflinchingly endured; where- 
fore our grateful love confesses, “Thou art worthy” . . 

“ for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by 
Thy blood.” (Rev. v:9). 

Again: Why should our Lord’s sufferings have been 
pushed to the final crisis of natural death ? Because other- 
wise his redeeming work would have been incomplete and 
transient. The maternal heredity, though indispensable 


196 


NEW CHURCH CONGRESS 


for the admission of temptation and thus for the 
conflicts and victories which won our freedom, was incom- 
patible with that entire and indissoluble union of the 
Father and Son, which is described in the Gospels as 
Glorification . Hence everything derived from the mother 
was put away, in order that nothing might impede the 
eternal embodiment of “all the fullness of the Godhead” 
in the Divine Man, Jesus Christ (Col. ii: 9), and the con- 
sequent maintenance of an open access between inmost 
Deity and the human race and the securing in perpetuity 
of the benefits achieved by Incarnation. Glorification, 
however, was likewise attended by anguish, since “ The 
Captain of our salvation” was made “perfect through 
sufferings.” (Heb. ii:10.) Each inherited infirmity, as 
it fulfilled its purpose by admitting the kindred tempta- 
tion, was expelled, until all that was from the mother 
expired with the cry, “It is finished” (John xix: 30). 
Henceforth, God abides forever in His glorified Humanity; 
and thus, “through the union with His Father which was 
completed by the passion of the cross, the Lord became 
the Redeemer to eternity” (T. C. R., 127). Since, there 
fore, this was attained through pain and death, it is 
appropriately described in the letter of the Word as 
effected by our Lord’s blood (Rev. v: 9). 

We must beware, however, of attaching a wrong 
importance to this metaphorical significance of blood. 
The sufferings and death of our Lord, though inseparable 
from His conflicts and victory, are not to be confounded 
with them ; and these, not the sufferings, redeemed us. 
If He could have fought and subdued the hells unscathed, 
we should equally have been made free; if His agony and 
death had issued in defeat, we should have been still in 
bonds. While Victor Emmanuel, the first king of Italy, 
was an infant in the cradle, the curtains of his little bed 
were one day found on fire. His nurse put out the flames 


NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINES 


197 


and saved the child, but died of the injuries received in 
doing so. Now, if she could have rescued the prince 
without danger to herself, he would have been effectually 
preserved; whereas, her self-sacrifice, unless attended by 
success, would have availed nothing. It is similar with 
the enfranchisement wrought by our Lord. Not His 
pangs but His victory redeemed us. For the sake of this 
end the tremendous anguish was unshrinkingly endured; 
and we are privileged, not simply to triumph in the 
prowess of our Almighty Deliverer, but to thrill and glow 
and melt at this proof of His Divine and matchless love. 

Finally, blood 'is used spiritually in Scripture, to 
signify the Divine truth. Just as the “life of the flesh is 
in the blood’’ (Lev. xvii: 11), which receives the nutri- 
tious elements of food and conveys them to every part of 
the human microcosm, — so the life of the will, with 
its varied affections, desires and appetites, is in the prin- 
ciples of right drawn from the Word, which, circulating 
through the mind and conduct, fortify them with the 
essentials of order and welfare. This “blood is drink 
indeed” (John vi: 55); for “he that believeth on” Jesus 
“shall never thirst” (v: 35). In this He washes us from our 
sins (Rev. i: 5), for, if we are clean at all, it can be only 
through the Word He hath spoken (John xv: 3). This 
Divine blood is also the medium of Redemption. In all 
His battles with hell, our Lord triumphed through the 
truth. In the wilderness three insidious falsehoods were 
suggested by the tempter, and each was resisted and 
foiled by an appropriate citation of what is wri ten (Mat. 
iv: 1-11). Truth, however, is more than speech, even 
though absolutely accurate; it is essential reality and law 
and order, thus the one supreme power against deceit and 
wrong. Hence we are taught, “It is to be noted that 
the conflict of the Lord with the hells was not an oral 
conflict, as between reasoners and disputants. Such a 


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conflict avails nothing here; but it was a spiritual conflict 
of Divine truth from Divine good, which was the Lord’s 
veriest vital (force). No one in hell can resist the influx 
of this, when presented by way of sight; for “a thousand 
enemies there cannot endure one ray of the light of 
heaven, which is Divine truth.” (H. H., 137.) “Such 
power is in it that, at its mere perception, infernal genii 
flee away, cast themselves into the deep, and creep into 
caverns that they may hide.” (T. C. R., 124.) Hence 
the declaration of the “new song,” “Thou hast redeemed 
us to God by Thy blood” (Rev. v: 9), is paralleled by the 
old confession of the Psalmist, “Thou hast redeemed me, 
O Jehovah God of truth.” (Ps. xxxi: 5.) 

By Redemption, therefore, we are made spiritually 
free. The utmost efforts of the enemies of our souls are 
now so controlled by the Divine Providence, that they 
cannot exceed the bounds of salutary discipline, Reveal- 
ing to us the evils which infest and beset us, they enable 
us, with the Lord’s help, to resist and expel them; and 
thus to co-operate in those further operations of His 
mercy whereby He seeks to become not only our Redeemer, 
but our Savior and our Regenerator. 


Ill 

THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION 

BY THE REV. 8. S. SEWARD 

Redemption is one thing, salvation another. Redemp- 
tion is a Divine work wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ 
alone (Isaiah lix: 16), without the co-operation or even 
the knowledge of man (Luke viii: 28). Salvation is 
the application of that work by the Lord to man, so far 
as man acts with the Lord by faith and obedience. 


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Man’s “ enemies,” so often spoken of in the Sacred 
Scriptures and particularly in the Psalms, are the spirits 
of evil men who have passed on into the other world, and 
who react, though secretly, upon men in this world (Eph. 
vi: 12). The Lord redeemed men by overcoming these 
spiritual enemies. For this purpose He assumed a human 
nature like our own. By this means He drew out against 
Himself the assaults of all the evil spirits in all the hells, 
and by virtue of the Divine power within Him, overcame 
them all. He was tempted in all points like as we are, 
yet without sin (Heb. iv: 5). He bore in His bosom the 
reproach of all the mighty people, wherewith they 
reproached the footsteps of the Annointed (Psalm lxxxix: 
50-51). For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, 
that He might destroy the works of the devil (I John 
iii: 8). 

We find the best illustration of this general work of 
redemption in the Lord’s dealings with the demoniacs 
while in the world. As they were possessed, as individ- 
uals, by “unclean spirits,” without a sense of their con- 
dition; so the whole race of mankind was at that time 
under the unconscious influence of the hells. As the 
demoniacs did not recognize their lost condition, nor 
make application to the Savior for the intervention of His 
saving power; so men did not understand their need of a 
Savior, nor pray to the Lord to come to their rescue. As 
He interfered on behalf of the demoniacs without any 
action or co-operation on their part, and commanded the 
unclean spirits to come out of them as soon, apparently, 
as He came into their presence; so He wrought the 
mighty work of redemption without the knowledge of 
men, and even without a suspicion on their part of the 
stupendous conflict He was waging for their sake. And 
as the effect in the case of the demoniacs was to restore 
them to reason and freedom, and to enable them to show 


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forth what great things the Lord had done for them, so 
the redemption resulted in freeing men from the over- 
weening power of the hells, and in enabling them to look 
to the Lord and to do His will, if they would. In 
other words the redemption was a spiritual work, wrought 
in the spiritual world, by the Lord Himself while dwell- 
i g in this world. It resulted in the reduction of the 
heavens to order and the hells to subjection, so that from 
that time forward the heavens could act as a transparent 
medium for the transmission of the Divine life to men, 
while the hells would thenceforth be restricted to such 
influence over men as men were willing to surrender to 
them by the choice of evil (True Christian Religion, 
115, 116, 121). It was by virtue of this work that the 
Lord Jesus said, after His death and resurrection, — “All 
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 
xxviii:18); and without this interposition of the Divine 
power we are taught that man has no more power against 
evil, “than a fish has against the ocean, or a flea against 
a whale, or a particle of dust against a falling mountain” 
(T. C. R, 68). 

Such being the nature of the general redemption 
wrought for us by the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not diffi- 
cult to understand the particular salvation it brings to 
the struggling soul. 

1. In the first place, it is an actual, and not merely a 
legal, salvation. It does not consist merely in redeeming 
men from the penalties incurred by their guilt, but from 
the guilt itself; not from the punishment of sin only, but 
from its power. It is an actual combat, carried on by 
the Lord Himself in the human soul, whereby, as fast as 
man repents of his evils by ceasing to do them in obed- 
ience to the commandments, the Lord drives out the evil 
spirits that excite them, and renders it possible for man 
to receive the opposite good affections from Him. It is, 


NEW- CHURCH DOCTRINES 


201 


in other words, the working out of a little redemption in 
the mind and heart of each and everyone of His children, 
similar to the great redemption which He wrought for 
the race as a unit when He came into the world. It is 
what the original Greek word means — a making whole, 
or sound. It is a casting of Satan out of the human 
mind (Luke x: 18). It is salvation from all the power 
of the enemy (lb. 19). It is the actual saving of men 
from their sins (Matt, i: 21). It is the remission, or send- 
ing away, of sins (Luke xxiv: 47). It is the fulfillment 
of the promise in Isaiah: “After those days, saith the 
Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write 
it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall 
be my people. And they shall teach no more, every man 
his brother, and every man his neighbor, saying, Know 
the Lord : for they shall all know me from the least of 
them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will 
forgive their iniquity , and I ivill remember their sin no 
more” (xxxi: 33-34). 

2. In the second place, it is a present, and not merely 
a future salvation; for this world, and not for the other 
only. Being the result of an actual combat with our 
spiritual enemies, by the one Omnipotent and everywhere 
present Lord and God of heaven and earth, and of an 
actual victory over them; it must be available at all times, 
for all men, who will take advantage of it by fulfilling 
the conditions. This is everywhere implied in the Holy 
Word. If we keep His commandments, the Lord says, 
we shall abide in His love (John xv: 10); not merely 
inherit the promise of it in the other world. If we love 
Him and keep His words, He will come unto us and make 
His abode with U3 (xiv: 35); not merely bring us unto 
Him, or into His abode, in the other life. Whosoever 
eateth His flesh, and drinketh His blood, it is said, hath 

14 


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NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


eternal life (vi:54); not shall have it at some future 
time. “There is no man,” it is written, “that hath left 
house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for 
the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive mani- 
fold more in this present time , and in the world to come 
life everlasting” (Luke xvii: 39, 40). It is not pretended 
that this salvation will exempt us from temptation to sin, 
but that it will give us, in the Lord’s strength, power 
against it No other conception of it is consistent with 
His command to so many of those whom He healed, — 
“Go, and sin no more;”, while it is only in the light of 
this truth that we can understand that mystical and 
wonderful saying, — “The works that I do shall ye do 
also, and greater works than these shall ye do; because I 
go unto my Father.” (John xiv: 12.) 

3. In the third place, it is not merely a present and 
actual, but a full and complete salvation. We are not 
to understand by this that a man is made over by this 
means, as to “the very substance of his self -hood,” into a 
new being, no longer capable of wishing, thinking or com- 
mitting sin, but that he is endowed with power under God to 
resist it; not that he is lifted at once and by miraculous 
influence above all possibility of temptation, but given 
the ability to overcome it in the Lord’s name. This 
results from the circumstance that the work of redemption 
is a Divine work, and therefore perfect. To suppose 
otherwise is to “limit” the Holy odo of Israel (Psalm 
lxxviii : 41). It is to deny that the Lord Jesus took unto 
Himself “all power” in heaven and “on earth.” It is to 
overlook the fullness and reality of the forgiveness, or 
remission of sins, and to ignore the oft -repeated and 
unlimited, though never unconditional, promises of the 
Word of the Lord. It is inconsistent also with the 
Divine character, which must have the desire and the 
ability to bestow full and complete, and not partial and 


NEW- CHURCH DOCTRINES 


208 


barren, victory on man. Accordingly the Lord describes 
Himself as redeeming Israel from all his iniquities 
(Psalm xxx : 8); as cleansing him for all his idols 
(Ezek. xxxvi:25); as healing all his diseases (Psalm 
ciii : 3) ; while it is written in the Apocalypse that they 
shall be “without fault” before the throne of God (xiv : 5), 
and the Apostle says, “Christ loved the Church and 
gave Himself for it, that He might present it to Himself 
a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, nor any 
such thing; but that it should be holy and without blem- 
ish.” (Eph. v: 25-27.) 

4. In the fourth place the salvation held out to us in 
the Word of the Lord as explained in the doctrines of 
the New Church, is not merely finite and human, but 
infinite and Divine. It is the result of the presence and 
operation of Divine forces in the soul, and not merely of 
human intelligence and wisdom. Its effect is not only to 
save men from the outer and grosser manifestations of evil, 
and the actual crimes into which they sometimes fall, 
but from the secret and impure lusts and desires that lie at 
the roots of their being. It is admitted that culture and 
refinement may enable a man to refrain, under sufficient 
inducement, from actual sin, and give him power to con- 
ceal his evil nature from his fellow men; but nothing of 
this kind can change his essential character, or purge 
and purify the secret springs of his life. Only the Lord 
Jesus Christ can do that, and He only by driving out the 
evil spirits that excite our evil nature, or by working a 
little redemption in our minds, as He wrought a great 
redemption for the whole race when in the world. “ Our 
wrestling is not,” says the Apostle, “against flesh and 
blood,” that is, against the lusts of the body and the 
desires of the world; “but against principalities and 
powers; against the world-rulers of this darkness, against 
the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places ” 


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NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


(Epli. vi:12), or, in other words, against the evil spirits 
in the other world who flow in and excite our natural 
appetites. He alone who assumed a human nature in 
order that He might meet and overcome our spiritual 
enemies, and who is infinite and eternal in all that He 
does can give us the victory. For this reason we are 
taught that if we would be saved we must have faith, or 
believe in Him: that is, must believe that He has done 
this work in our behalf, and that He will apply it to 
our souls if we will fulfill the conditions. For this 
reason we are taught to come unto Him, and to look 
unto Him, if we would be saved and find rest (Matt, xi: 
28; Isaiah xlv: 22). For this reason it is declared that 
except we believe that He — the Lord Jesus Christ — is\ 
or, in other words, that He is the only source of life and 
goodness and wisdom and power, and that we have no 
life or goodness of our own; we must die in our sins 
(John viii: 24). For this reason not only are power and 
might and honor ascribed unto Him in the Apocalypse, 
but “ salvation ” (Rev. vii: 10, 12; xix: 1). 

Salvation, then, is the redemption wrought by the 
Lord Jesus Christ applied to the individual soul. It is 
a real, and not merely an imputed, salvation; wrought 
for this present time in preparation for eternity, and not 
for the other world alone; and is not only as full and 
complete as the measure of our faith will permit, but 
absolutely Divine and perfect. All this is briefly and 
clearly stated in a noteworthy passage in the writings of 
Swedenborg : — 

“In the combats or temptations of men the Lord 
works a particular redemption, as He wrought a redemp- 
tion that embraced the whole while in the world. The 
Lord in the world, by means of combats and temptations, 
glorified His human, that is, made it Divine. In like 
manner now, with man individually, while he is in 


NEW- CHURCH DOCTRINES 


205 


temptation. In these the Lord fights for him, and conquers 
the evil spirits who are infesting him, and after tempta- 
tion, glorifies him, that is, renders him spiritual. After 
His universal redemption, the Lord reduced to order all 
things in heaven and hell. With man after temptation 
He does in like manner; that is to say, He reduces to 
order all things that are of heaven and the Church with 
man. After redemption the Lord established a new 
Church. In like manner he establishes those things 
which are of the Church with man, and makes him a 
Church in particular. After redemption the Lord gifted 
those who believed in Him with peace; for He said, 
‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you; not 
as the world giveth give I unto you’ (John xiv : 27). So 
likewise He gives to man after temptation to feel peace; 
that is, gladness of mind and consolation.” (T. C. R., 599). 

The great prophet of Israel teaches the same lesson in 
not less striking and definite language : — 

“Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and 
he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not; for I have 
redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name; thou art 
mine. When thou passeth through the waters, I will be 
w T ith thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow 
thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not 
be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For 
I am the Lord thy God, the holy one of Israel, thy 
Savior” (Isaiah xlvii : 1-3). 


IY 

DOCTRINE OF THE FUTURE LIFE 

BY THE REV. HOWARD C. DUNHAM 

The New Church doctrine of the future life, as drawn 
from the Word of God, and set forth in the writings 
of Emanuel Swedenborg — the Columbus of spiritual 


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NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


discovery — presents, it is believed, not merely a marvelously 
beautiful and attractive theory, but rational and authori- 
tative truth, and the only sound and Divinely provided 
basis for a universal faith in the things of the spirit, in 
the great spiritual background of all life. 

This doctrine proclaims that the future life, in its 
normal, heavenly state, is the final, eternal form of all 
true life; that all the Divine creation has this end in 
view; and that all the natural universe is a seminary, or 
nursery, for preparing humanity to enjoy this supreme 
blessedness. It is shown that, primarily and essentially, 
man is a spiritual beiDg, and that, even while clothed 
with a material body in the natural world, as to his 
spirit, he is ever an inhabitant of the spiritual world. 
The material body, with the natural senses, cannot 
rationaly be recognized as the man himself, but merely 
as the clothing or mechanism through, and by means of 
which, he is connected with the outside world. Not only 
is man a spirit, but in point of fact, all life is spiritual. 
What we see in this natural world is not life, but 
simply material substance, clothing an inner spiritual 
life, which moulds, arranges and animates all the varied 
forms of earth. Plants, trees and animals are outward 
forms of spiritual life. No plant or tree could have the 
appearance of life and grow, were it not for the spiritual 
plant or tree within, which takes, up and arranges the 
particles of matter, and thereby causes each plant or 
tree to differ from every other. So with man; the real 
intelligent, living person is spiritual, while the material 
body is merely a brief, temporal, outward enswathment, 
adapted to the uses and purposes of this world of time 
and space. 

What takes place at death is not in any sense the 
annihilation of life, but simply the separation which must 
take place sooner or later, between the living man and 


NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINES 


207 


his temporal garment of earth. What is of the dust, 
returns to dust; but what is from above continues 
unchanged as to every vital characteristic, and thus the 
man remains intact with all his personality, faculties 
and life. But this would not be possible, unless man 
had a spiritual as well as a natural body. The spiritual 
body, while not in any sense material, or subject to the 
limitations of the material world is nevertheless, most 
real and substantial, and since it formed the material 
body, it has all the parts and capabilities which char- 
acterize that, only in greater fullness and perfection. This 
is, evidently, the teaching of the Apostle Paul, in the 
famous 15th chapter of First Corinthians, where he says: 
‘‘But some will say, How are the dead raised up? and 
with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which 
thou sowest is not quickened except it die ; . . . thou 
sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain. . . . 
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a 
natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a 
natural body, and there is a spiritual body. . . . Now then, 
this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit 
the Kingdom of God.” 

If the natural body is never to be rehab itated, doubtless 
some might call in question the use of the word resurrec- 
tion. But in the light of the meaning of the original 
term, and of what takes place in the spiritual world, all 
is made clear. The Greek word translated resurrection 
is anastasis and means “standing up.” It does not 
mean bringing to life anything actually dead, not the 
rising or floating upwards in space of anything whatsoever. 
As already stated, the spiritual body is in the spiritual 
world, even while connected with a natural body; but 
as all the life, affection and thought are directed down 
and out, through the natural body into the world, the 
person is not conscious of his spiritual surroundings* 


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and cannot be recognized by others in the spiritual 
world. At death, after putting off the natural body, the 
spiritual body stands forth in conscious, recognizable, 
spiritual activity. Such is the “ anastasis,” or bodily 
resurrection, of which the Bible speaks. 

The spiritual world where this takes place, and which 
in the future eternal home of humanity is no mere 
ethereal, formless, shadowy world, but most real, sub- 
stantial and light-abounding. It is not in any sense 
material, but nevertheless is substantial. As affection 
and thought, which are spiritual, are the most real and 
substantial part of man, so the whole spiritual world is 
most real, substantial and lifelike. It is a thoroughly 
human world of varied attractions, similar to those which 
here surround us, only richer and more perfect. “ In my 
Father’s house are many mansions,’’ are the words of 
our Savior, and all the glimpses of the spiritual world 
scattered through the Bible, are of scenes similar to 
those of earth. Mountains, rivers, trees, houses, horses 
and chariots, armies and the like are spoken of in 
the Word as being seen in the realm of the spirit. 
Accordingly, when Swedenborg, after nearly thirty years 
of actual experience in the spiritual world, tells us that 
it is similar to the natural world, and characterized by all 
the forms of life which we see here, we do not accept it 
on his unsupported word merely, but find that such is 
the teaching of the Bible, and, furthermore, that it 
appeals as could no other idea to our rationality. 

The question “ where is the spiritual world” has 
been one of the puzzles of the ages. Material ideas have 
so far prevailed that it has generally been regarded as 
situated in space, at some vast distance from earth, either 
in the sun, moon, or in some planet or star. The truth 
is, that the spiritual world is at no spacial distance 
from earth; that, being spiritual, it is in no wise 


NEW- CHURCH DOCTRINES 


209 


material or subject to the laws of space and time. As 
we have said, at death the spirit does not rise in space 
and make any vast journey, but simply wakes to conscious 
life in the same realm where it had hitherto led an 
unconscious life. The spiritual world is within the 
natural world, as the soul is within the body. 

Since man is a spiritual body, even while clothed 
with a material body through which his faculties usually 
operate, it is possible for his spiritual senses to be con- 
sciously opened to the activities of the spiritual world 
around him. This has taken place occasionally all 
through the ages. It was in this way that the Divine 
Word was given to men. John, the Kevelator, declares, 
“ I was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day,” and then pro- 
ceeds to tell what he saw and heard. The prophet, 
Ezekiel, says, “ as I was among the captives by the river 
Chebar (which was in Babylonia), the heavens were 
opened and I saw visions of God.” The young man, 
servant of the Prophet Elisha, when his inner eyes were 
opened by the Lord, beheld “ the mountains full of 
horses- and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” Open 
vision is spoken of in the book of Samuel; and angels 
appeared to Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Manovah, Mary and 
others. They had not material bodies, and did not 
come from any distant part of the material universe, 
but the spiritual or inner eyes of those who beheld them 
were, for the time, providentially opened. 

That he might reveal the inner sense of Scripture 
and dissipate the incredulity which existed with regard 
to the spiritual world, Emanuel Swedenborg was pre- 
pared by the Lord and admitted fully into the conscious 
life of the spiritual world, for a space of about thirty of 
our years, while, as to his natural body, he was an inhab- 
itant of earth. The revelations which he has made, 
agreeing as they do with the Word and reason, fully 


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confirm his claim. Modern spiritualism is based on this 
nearness of the other world, and the possibility of inter- 
course, but since to seek such intercourse is disorderly 
and hurtful, the visions which they obtain who thus seek 
to penetrate the veil which mercifully hangs between 
the two worlds, are at best but dim and delusive 
appearances. 

Through all these latter ages which have been char- 
acterized by the perversion and decay of primitive 
Christianity, the other world has been thought of as con- 
sisting only of two divisions, — heaven and hell, — and to 
the popular mind at least the former has been one never 
ending prayer and praise meeting around the supposed 
throne of God, while the latter has been a lake of 
burning fire and brimstone in which the evil were ever 
tortured without being consumed. It is now known that 
there are not only three heavens, but innumerable 
societies in each heaven, and that each society lives a 
normal, varied, community life of uses, with frequent 
occasions for devotion and recreation. The word trans- 
lated heaven in our English Bibles is often plural in 
the original. For instance, the first verse of Genesis 
should read: “ In the beginning, God created the 
heavens and the earth.” And the Lord’s Prayer in the 
original reads: “Our Father who art in the heavens.” 
The Apostle Paul also speaks of being “caught up to the 
third heaven.” So of hell, the new doctrine teaches 
that there is not only one hell, but three great divisions 
of hell, and innumerable congregations in each of these 
divisions, corresponding to the societies in each of the 
heavens; evil being the opposite of good, there are neces- 
sarily varying degrees and kinds of evil life. 

Now as heaven is heaven, because goodness and order 
ever prevail, it is evident that few who pass from earth 
are able to come at once into a, full heavenly state. 


NEW-CHUROH DOCTRINES 


211 


Everyone nearly, even the best, carries with him some 
external, disorderly habits, which would be entirely out 
of place in heaven. The doctrine of the intermediate state 
between heaven and hell, the entrance hall to eternity, 
was a common doctrine of the early Christian Church. 
But, becoming corrupted into the Roman Catholic 
doctrine of purgatory, or place of expiation, it was 
entirely discarded by Protestant Christianity. But such 
an intermediate state exists of necessity, not as a place of 
punishment, but of preparation for either heaven or hell. 
Shoel in the Old Testament, and Hades in the New 
Testament stand for the intermediate state, or first 
receptacle of spirits released from earth. These words 
have been wrongly translated as hell, or the grave. It is 
in this intermediate state or world of spirits, that all 
judgment is effected. For instance, in Revelation, John 
records: “I saw the dead, small and great, stand before 
God,” for judgment. This could not have been in 
heaven, for only those who have been judged good, are 
there, nor in hell for only those who have been judged 
bad are there. The “sea,” “ death and hell (hades) ” 
which delivered up the dead to be judged, refer to dif- 
ferent portions of the intermediate world. 

The New-Church doctrine of the future life teaches 
that all the inhabitants of the spiritual world, all angels, 
spirits and devils have once lived on this or some other 
earth of the material universe; that none were created 
angels as such, and that no angels ever fell from grace 
and became devils. These latter are all irrational ideas 
which have no real foundation in Scripture. It has been 
supposed that angels and archangels were a superior 
order of beings to man. But, when we consider that 
God alone is the Fountain of Life, and that man was 
created unto His image and likeness, it is evident that 
there can be no beings of a superior order between man 
and God, 


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NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


Creation was for the purpose of producing a heaven 
of angels. God is a Being of infinite love and wisdom. 
From love he created free intelligent objects on which to 
bestow his affection. Our infinitely wise and loving 
Creator first placed men upon earth that they may 
here freely choose for themselves the character of their 
lives; so He provided an intermediate state or world 
where all the final preparations could be made, so that 
no disorder or incongeniality should mar the beautiful 
life of heaven; and men are so created that having once 
fully and freely made their choice of life, this choice 
becomes so embodied in the very fiber of their being, 
that all change thereafter becomes virtually impossible. 

It is evident from the foregoing statement, that men 
are not judged to heaven or hell in any arbitrary manner. 
Each human being freely and knowingly makes his own 
choice in life, and so voluntarily selects his eternal home. 
Heaven and Hell are, essentially, states of the soul, 
rather than places — heaven the state of being good, and 
hell the state of being bad. The attainment of heaven 
is, therefore, the acquisition of an orderly, happy, heavenly 
state of life. This is the teaching of the Gospel, when 
we read: “ The Kingdom of God cometh not with obser- 
vation; neither shall they say, Lo here! or Lo there! for, 
behold, the Kingdom of God is with you.” 

The peculiarity about heaven and the spiritual world 
is that the outward surroundings are always the result 
and projection of the internal states of the angels, devils, 
or spirits. An angel always has good surroundings, and 
a devil, bad. Things of the spirit are not unchangeable 
and fixed, like those of earth, but easily and quickly 
respond to the changing state of tho e with whom they 
are connected. An angel’s home and garden change 
according to the changes in the general character of his 
mind. And his clothing with the particular changes that 


NEW-CHUROH DOCTRINES 


213 


more often come to him. We can see the analogy of 
this here on earth. So far as we are able, we arrange 
the character of our houses and surroundings according 
to our thought of what they should be, and we frequently 
change our clothing to adapt it for what we are doing. 
With the angels, this principle is fully carried out, and 
it adds immensely to the variety and interest of heavenly 
life. 

Divine Providence wills that all men should become 
angels. This is strikingly illustrated by the interesting 
fact noted by Swedenborg, that the highest angels first 
meet and greet all awaking to the future life, and do 
for them all manner of kind offices. If these angels 
are not congenial to the newcomers, then angels of a 
lower degree approach, and so on, till it is perceived that 
none of the angelic world are agreeable; and then, only, 
it is permitted those in the lighter degrees of evil to come 
forward, and afterwards those in deeper evils, in succes- 
sive order, till the novitiate spirits finds congenial asso- 
ciates. Thus, do we see how “the Lord is good to all 
and His tender mercies are over all His works.” 

Of late years there has been considerable agitation 
over the condition of infants, the insane, the heathen and 
the ignorant from Christendom in the future life. The 
doctrine of the New Church places this whole subject in 
clear, rational light. All who die in infancy are saved to 
heaven, tenderly cared for and lovingly educated by the 
angels, among whom they grow to maturity. The insane 
pass into the other world where the use of their reason is 
restored to them in the same state with reference to sal- 
vation in which they were when it was dethroned, and 
merciful provision is made for them freely to choose their 
future life. The heathen are saved equally with the 
inhabitants of Christendom. Every heathen nation or 
tribe has its Religion, and accordingly as they faithfully 


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live the principles of their belief, be it ever so imperfect 
and erroneous, they form in themselves a conscience which 
desires what is good and right, so that all faithful souls 
even from the darkest heathendom, will, in the future life, 
gladly receive the truth and become elevated thereby to 
heaven. This is in accord with the teachings of Peter in 
Acts x: 34-35, “ God is no respecter of persons, but in 
every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteous- 
ness is accepted with Him.” This same law applies, of 
course, to the ignorant in Christendom. With all who 
make an honest use of their opportunities for knowledge, 
and live accordingly to the best they know, no rational 
doubt can be entertained respecting their future welfare 
and happiness. 

Thus does the New-Church doctrine of this future 
life demonstrate its beauty and rationality. In this light 
we see that Divine Providence ever preserves man’s 
individuality and essential characteristics, even to eternity, 
and that the future life in its normal, heavenly state, is 
very similar to all the nobler phases of this life; for other- 
wise of what use would be these earthly years as a prep- 
aration for the life eternal ? All that we truly care for 
will be found in the future life — if we love the Lord and 
the neighbor, a heart at peace with itself, happy reunions 
of congenial spirits, never more to be parted; oppor- 
tunities for boundless, endless progress in all which 
interests us; new vistas and fresh experiences of delight 
ever presenting themselves; and in our persons ever 
growing toward the strength, beauty and elasticity of 
eternal youth! A man, however old, worn and disabled 
his material body when discarded, is ever growing, as to 
his spiritual body in the heavens, towards the freshness 
and virility of perfect, early manhood; and a woman, 
however infirm, wrinkled and faded her material body 
when put away, if she loves the Lord, and all that is 


NEW- CHURCH DOCTRINES 


215 


good, will also grow toward an exquisite beauty and 
loveliness of youthful bloom, immeasurably surpassing 
anything known on earth. 

Such is the transcendent richness of thought and 
experience to which the New-Church doctrine of the 
future life invites humanity. 


y 

THE SCIENCE OF CORRESPONDENCE, AND THE 
WORD OF GOD 

BY THE REV. JOHN WORCESTER 

The so-called “ Higher Criticism ” which has monopo- 
lized the attention of Bible students of late, occupies 
itself solely with ,the attempt to discover the times and 
circumstances in which the various books of the Bible 
were written. The discussion of these things, because it 
unsettles preconceived opinions on these points, is dis- 
turbing to many minds; as if the Divine character and 
authority of the Bible depended upon certain men known 
as prophets or messengers of God and the formative 
inspiration of the Spirit of God could operate through 
no other means. 

The effect of the discussion has been wholesome so 
far as it has freed the thought of the world from servile 
adherence to particular instruments of revelation, and has 
brought to view the truth, that the inspiration of the 
Bible lies in the Divine Spirit, which still is within it, 
and which has made use of various instruments and 
various circumstances to teach the essential lessons of 
spiritual life. There is, in fact, under the impulse of the 
recent studies, a growing recognition of the truth that the 
forms of the Bible, its stories, its prophecies, its laws 


216 


NEW -CHURCH CONGRESS 


and its Psalms, although in the language of men, and 
founded throughout upon the experience of men mostly 
of Semitic race, are in some wonderful way types of 
spiritual experiences which are common to mankind, to 
men of Aryan, Mongolian, African, as well as of Semitic 
origin; and that it is of the Divine Providence and by 
the Divine inspiration, that this was brought to pass, in 
order that, by means of the Bible, God might teach the 
universal truths of Divine and human life to his 
children. 

The interpretation of these types with a view to 
learning their spiritual lessons has not gone very far. 
In our day indeed it is less confident, and perhaps less 
enlightened, than it was in the Primitive Christian 
Church. In that most interesting walk with the two 
disciples to Emmaus, the Lord began at Moses and 
opened to them in all the Scriptures the things concern- 
ing Himself. Afterward, appearing to the eleven and to 
others with them, he told them that all things must be 
fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in 
the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning Him ; and He 
opened their understanding that they might understand 
the Scriptures. Such incidents as these gave an impetus 
to the searching of the Scriptures for types of the Lord’s 
life, and of Christian experience, which, by some of the 
early Christian Fathers, was carried away very far. No 
doubt in the enlightenment of the Spirit of Truth, which 
was so manifest at that time, there was much that was 
genuine in these interpretations, and a substantial 
development of the Christian Faith was attained by means 
of them. Yet, there was no sure guide in regard to them, 
and no definite system. And therefore, to the more criti- 
cal temper of our day, the interpretations seem generally 
fanciful and unsupported, and have fallen into disrepute. 
Even the interpretations of the older Scriptures given in 


iNEW CHURCH DOCTRINES 


217 


the new, which may be supposed to be either some of 
those which the Lord, Himself, gave to the disciples, or 
at least from the enlightenment of His Spirit, are regarded 
in our day as unscientific, or by reverent minds are 
accepted as true, but belonging to a system of interpre- 
tation which is not understood. It is evident that the 
science which, in exclusive devotion to literal structure 
and fulfillment allows no place for such fulfillment as 
the Lord, Himself, indicated, is not yet in possession of 
the whole truth about the Bible. 

And, does not the same lack appear in our science in 
relation to other wisdom of the ancients ? Mythologies 
have come down to us in many lines from remote ages. 
And our men of science, examining them, tell us that they 
are all personified descriptions of the sky, the sun, moon, 
stars and clouds, the sea and the winds, the storms and 
the rain, the heat and the light. And, while in large 
part this is probably not to be disputed, it is plain that 
this is not the whole truth. The supposition that ancient 
people told fanciful stories personifying the powers of 
nature, and describing their doings as the actions of 
human beings, does not at all account for the intense 
religiousness and the universality of their regard for 
these powers of, — for example, the universal recognition 
of the sun as the chief symbol of Deity, and the observ- 
ance of sacred rites in connection with his rising and 
setting, and his return to vivify the earth in spring. To 
account for all this, and for the profound reverence and 
sense of holiness associated with it, we need to think of 
other things. We need to remember, for instance, how 
thoroughly alive all things are to children and to others 
of childlike character, — alive with human feeling and 
intent, good or evil. To them there is a human kindness 
in the sunshine and the showers of spring, and a human 

15 


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NEW-CHU&CH CONGRESS 


cruelty in the destructive storms and cold. And such 
perception of human attributes throughout the world of 
nature we must ascribe to the ancients to account for 
their interest in the personifications of the natural forces. 
To them, these were real embodiments of Divine and 
human energy intent upon errands of service or injury. 

And as this was the genius of ancient peoples, not 
merely in their childhood, but through their whole life, as 
they were constantly interested with an absorbing interest 
in the manifestations of will and purpose in the world 
about them, and generation after generation accumulated 
experience and discernment of the quality of such will 
and purpose a3 manifested in the regular or the extraor- 
dinary phenomena of nature, they became wise in much 
mystic wisdom to which men of modern time do not attend. 
We have evidence that this was the case in the myths and 
fables, the magic, the riddles and parables, and the sig- 
nificant narrations with which ancient literature abounds. 

But even this is not sufficient to account for the 
religiousness of the ancient feeling for the symbolic acts 
of worship, and for the sense of communion with God, and 
of instruction from Him, which is expressed so constantly 
and emphatically in ancient literature. For this we need 
not only the recognition, for instance, of human benefi- 
cence in the illumining and warming of the dark, cold 
earth by the rising of the sun, but also a sense of con- 
scious relation with that human beneficence and of inward 
blessing from it; not only a recognition of appropriate 
forms of acknowledgment and worship of that hidden 
source of all good, but a consciousness that by the sincere 
use of such forms they really come into fellow com- 
munion with it; not only by knowledge of the human 
qualities expressed in the phenomena of nature, but a 
conscious instruction from God, in the order of spiritual 
life, through the orderly relations of these phenomena — 


NEW- CHURCH DOCTRINES £l9 

to say nothing of the special manifestations by which 
special instruction may have been given. 

The traditions of many people show that there was 
in the ancient days such consciousness of communion 
with God, and of instruction from God, with holy and 
reverent worship of Him who was their life and the 
Creator of the life of the universe. Their wisdom was, in 
the best sense, sensuous, the wisdom of keen observation ; 
but it was an observation of both outward phenomena 
and of inward experience. They were open and sensi- 
tive to heaven, as well as to earth. They had no original 
science, natural or spiritual, but they ha 3 a child’s quick 
sensitiveness to outward phenomena, with clear intuition 
of essential quality and perception of a spiritual relation. 
A full religious life of this childlike quality was enjoyed, 
wise and deep, open to God, in harmony with the order 
of His creation. No wonder that men, who enjoyed such 
life, loved to describe the changes and developments of 
it by myths and parables, such as abound in the ancient 
literature, — especially that preserved to us in Egypt. 
No wonder that they told of the serpent that spoke with 
them, and of trees that bore wisdom of life or knowledge 
of good and evil. 

And thus was formed, in accord with their sensuous 
and spiritual perception, a representative language which 
the spirit of God might make use of to give Divine 
instruction about spiritual duties and possibilities. It 
was the natural language of a wise childhood about holy 
things. It is a language akin to that of the Lord’s own 
speech, in which He described the states and processes 
of spiritual life by parables from nature, and stories 
from natural life. It is in general the language of the 
whole Bible, from the story of the days of the creation to 
the description of the Golden City lightened by the glory 
of God. 


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NEW -CHURCH CONGRESS 


In the ancient days such language as that of the 
Bible was intelligently understood. When, for instance, 
they were told a story of creation, beginning with a 
formless void to which the light first penetrated and 
ending with man in the image and likeness of God, the 
wise could not help seeing in it a description of the 
regeneration, or creation of a heavenly spirit — which 
they knew to proceed in precisely that order. But in 
process of time, as the development of natural and social 
life advanced, and its promises became more engrossing, 
the perception of the spiritual life within the natural 
became obscure, and finally was wholly lost; yet, a knowl- 
edge that there was a representation of spiritual things 
in natural, lingered for awhile, and the use of represen- 
tatives in worship survived long after the knowledge of 
what they represented had disappeared. And then the 
Spirit of God, which had been a spirit of enlightenment 
and spiritual delight at the first, ceasing to be thus per- 
ceived, was felt as a spirit of holiness in the representa- 
tive worship performed according to the ancient order; 
and it also provided for itself outward types of regen- 
erate life which should serve to preserve the representa- 
tion of such life among men when the actual experience 
of it ceased. 

Such types we find in the story of Abraham, in his 
summons to leave the land of his nativity, his sojourn 
under the care of the Lord in the land of Canaan, his 
going down into Egypt, the subsequent captivity in 
Egypt of his descendants, their deliverance, and instruc- 
tion from heaven and final possession of the Holy Land, 
holy in its representative character. All of this, we are 
taught in the New Church, was of the Divine provision 
as a type of the development of the natural man, his 
early instruction in heavenly things, his captivity to the 
knowledge and pleasures of the world, his deliverance 


NEW- CHURCH DOCTRINES 


221 


and His later possession of spiritual states. The subse- 
quent history of the nation in that land, its captivity and 
its restoration represent the developments of the Church 
after it comes to some enjoyment of heavenly states and 
growth in them; with large development also of pride in 
the understanding and the holiness of them, — a pride 
requiring a new and deeper deliverance, a more humble 
and thorough knowledge of God as the Savior and 
Redeemer. 

Our doctrine is, that not only is the general story of 
the Bible thus typical of the spiritual experiences of men. 
but all the details of that story were so provided and 
arranged by the Spirit of God as to be the Divine and 
universal type of the states of the Church in individual 
men and in the race. In the representative worship of 
the Israelites, for instance, it was deeply significant that 
the ark containing the Ten Commandments should occupy 
alone the inmost part of the tabernacle, representing the 
covenent of the soul with God; that the altar of incense, 
the candlestick and the table of bread should occupy the 
second chamber, — the chamber of prayer and praise, of 
spiritual thought and love; and that the altar of burnt- 
offering, with the fire of the Divine love always burning 
upon it, should stand in the court of outer life where 
the lambs, the kids, and the calves, the wheat and the 
barley, the oil and the wine, — representing all the ele- 
ments of good, natural life, its varied affections, its fruit- 
fulness, its enjoyments, — might be brought to it to be 
consecrated by the Divine fire. The knowledge of what 
these things represented had long since vanished, but of 
the Divine Providence the sense of the presence of God 
and heaven remained as a sense of holiness in the orderly 
use of them in the worship of the Church. Their priests 
down to the days of Caiphas, after which the kingdom of 
God was taken from them, prophesied of things, which 


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NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


they little understood, from the spirit of God. The 
Divine Spirit was present until then, moulding ail the 
representatives materially, of worship, of tradition, of 
written history, of holy songs, that had been collecting 
from the earliest dimes, into the grand type of regenerate 
life, which we know as the Bible, or the Word of God. 
And when the spirit of God departed from them, the 
sense of holiness was gone from their worship, and such 
worship soon became impossible. 

With the Jewish Dispensation the childhood of the 
race drew to a close, and with it the childish way of look- 
ing upon the natural world as alive with the influences of 
the spiritual world, and of representing those influences 
and their effects by natural sculpture and story. The 
representative Word, therefore, was now shortly com- 
pleted; and He whom the Word supremely represented 
came, fulfilling the meaning of it in a Divine human life. 

A new era began in the history of the race — an era 
characterized by much confusion and obscurity and the 
development of much that was unlovely, as is necessarily 
the case in the transition from childhood to manhood. It 
was an era in which the race was struggling to see the 
truth rationally, instead of accepting it blindly from 
another. It was an era characterized by the birth of the 
scientific spirit and the attainment of all that we now 
know as science. There has been much that was sad 
about it, which nevertheless was inevitable in the process 
of developing a manly reason based upon scientific 
knowledge. The spirit of denial that has prevailed has 
been largely a kind of self-assertion inseparable from the 
desire to see for one’s self and a protest against unreason- 
able forms of belief. And when this change is accom- 
plished, and it is seen that the God of heaven desires that 
men should understand and see by reason what He teaches, 
we may hope that so much of the spirit of denial will give 


NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINES 


223 


place to a love of truth for truth’s sake, which will accept 
the truth of the spiritual world as well as that of the 
natural, and will find pleasure in the harmony between 
them. 

In the meantime we have the book which was finished 
and sealed. The very language in which it was written, 
the language of representatives, is mostly forgotten. The 
problem of the future, in which the spiritual enlighten- 
ment of the race depends, is to open it and under- 
stand it. 

The New Church believes that the seals are already 
loosed, and the general subjects of which the Holy Book 
treats, together with many particulars, are disclosed from 
heaven by the Lord, and explained to the reason, in the 
writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. The key to the 
language also is revealed, and it is shown to be the lan- 
guage of correspondence and representatives, the native 
language of the childhood of the race. 

The path of wisdom lies in turning and becoming 
again as a little child. But the race can return to its 
childhood only in the same sense that is possible to a 
man. He cannot lose his development of body, his gains 
of knowledge of life, his maturer reason. He can 
only become humble and teachable, willing to learn of 
God and heaven. He will not again have the intui- 
tions of childhood, the perceptions of the spiritual influ- 
ence that expresses itself in every object of the earth. 
The science of maturity is not the child’s sensuous per- 
ception of particulars, open though that be to heaven. 
It is the knowledge of general ideas gathered from 
masses of particulars grouped and arranged accordingly 
to their affinities. The objective phenomena of the outer 
world and the subjective experiences of the inner mental 
world, both, can be so grouped and studied, and their 
essential characters and relationship ascertained. And 


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NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


when this study is thoroughly done and the planes of 
outward phenomena and of inward experience are laid 
over against each other, it is as clear to the mature eye 
of reason as to the child’s intuition that they answer each 
to the other, that the outer world is but the manifestation 
to sense of the influences which constitute the spiritual 
life. 

To illustrate by a broad generalization. The eye of 
reason contemplating the two worlds, the inner and the 
outer, sees that there are three great groups, or king- 
doms of spiritual realities as of natural. There are solid 
facts of existence underlying all mental activity, some of 
them the primary facts of the Divine nature and of human 
nature, and some of them accumulated facts of history; 
and these answer to the rocks of the earth. Then there 
are varieties of growing intelligence and wisdom, which 
in their species, in their habits of growth, and in their 
fruitfulness, answer to the plants of the earth. And the 
animals of the earth are but the outward forms of affec- 
tion , which are recognized at once as wholly human. In 
fact, a careful study with clear eyes shows that there are 
no phenomena of earth or sky known to any branch of 
science which are not correspondences of spiritual activi- 
ties. And these correspondences are manifestations as 
well; for in the last analysis of force there is no origin 
in which the mind can rest but the exercise of will. 

Thus we are returning to the wisdom of the ancients 
and perceiving in a rational way what they perceived 
with the clear intuition of childhood. And in this 
return there will be a gain in breadth as is the difference 
between the broad generalizations of science and the 
particular observations of a child. 

With this new interpretation of its language, the 
Word is now to be studied. As we look in the parables 
of the Lord, not primarily for lessons in natural history, 


NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINES 


225 


nor for incidents of human history, though both of these 
are undoubtedly there, but for lessons of spiritual life, so 
we are to read the whole Word. And we shall find 
there in its simpler parables the necessary lessons for 
every day, and in its larger representative histories the 
story of the stages of human development common to 
the individual and to the race. We shall find the whole 
truth of human life, with the lessons necessary for every 
state, — lessons which explain the state, lessons of practi- 
cal guidance, lessons of humility and prayer, lessons in 
the thanksgiving and praise that are due. We shall find 
the lessons which the Lord lived, and by living which 
He became at once the Word made flesh and Divine 
Humanity. We shall find the Divine ideal of human life, 
from its innocent beginning in a Garden of Delight, 
taught by the Lord God, nourished by the tree of 
the wisdom of God, and continued through all 
developments, the captivities, the deliverances of child- 
hood and manhood to the heavenly order of the Golden 
City. 

Reviewing then our subject, “the science of cor- 
respondences and the Word of God” in the light of what 
has been said, the doctrine of the New Church is, that 
the Word is written in the language of correspondences 
and representatives; that the language was familiar and 
well understood in the Ancient Churches; that it is a 
natural language easily learned by the rational mind 
which has at command the science of both worlds, the 
natural and the spiritual; and that when its language is 
learned and its seals are loosed by the revelation of the 
general truths of which it teaches, the Word of God 
stands forth as the wisdom of God, the Divine Wisdom 
which forms a humanity in the image and likeness of 
God. 


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VI 

THE INTERNAL WORD IN ITS RELATION TO THE 
RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD 

BY THE REV. ADOLPH ROEDER 

Large trees grow slowly. Heavy bodies move slowly. 
Great movements among the peoples of the earth must 
needs be of slow growth and motion. Were we to look 
only into the lighter and less important interests of 
humanity, we should find them growing rapidly; growing 
with perceptible speed; growing in such ways that their 
increase is readily recognized. But when we look into 
the deeper interests of the race, it is natural that they 
should be of less rapid growth. The region of physical 
comfort, of industrial interests, of commercial values and 
goods is one in which the international growth is most 
readily perceptible. From the days of antiquity forward, 
the growth of material interests in the interchange of 
commercial products has been of steady and of late of 
remarkable rapidity. The products of any one country 
readily find their way into any or all of the others. 
For material interests are of lesser import. 

Take the mental sphere and it will be found that in 
the interchange of thought there has also been a startling 
development. Within the past two centuries the thoughts 
of great men in any one country have been made accessi- 
ble to the reader in any country of the globe, by skillful 
translations, by ready commentators. We pick up in our 
library a novel by Turgenjeff, from a heterogeneous mass of 
literature wherein figure Ebers, Cervantes, Olinet, Dickens, 
Bjoernsterne Bjoernsen, Maartens, and hundreds of other 
prominent representatives of every nation under the sun. 
Peacefully side by side in the library of the intelligent 
student stand the Vedas and the Koran, and the Bible, 


NEW -CHURCH DOCTRINES 


227 


and the various representative books of the nations. And 
more and more rapidly are we growing familiar with the 
thought-life of the peoples all the world over. Growth 
on this plane is quite decided. 

But when it comes to the heaviest interests of the 
living soul ; to those interests which most vitally represent 
its own growth, its own heart-life, when we come, in 
short, to the ponderous realism of Religion, then growth 
is slower. Closely as the commercial interests of the 
nations have become intertwined, nearly as the thought- 
life of the people has come in contact, the Religions of 
the people are as yet very distinct, and apparently at 
great variance. But the ‘‘apparently” is to be very 
decidedly emphasized. We have for so many centuries 
stood silent before this problem of the vital interests of 
the race, that we hesitate even now to speak, when there 
begins to dawn upon the soul of man the gigantic 
thought that God is in very deed a Father of all His 
children. That the Fatherhood of God, and the consequent 
brotherhood of man, are not empty phrases framed in air, 
but living utterances of the great world spirit in the first 
dawn of the new day, which is breaking over the eastern 
hills. The greater thought comes nearer and nearer to 
the hearts of thinking men, that there is in reality but 
one great Church, the Lord’s Church, and that all the 
institutions of Religion are but branches of the one great 
school, whereof the Lord is the Teacher. That with the 
new light, which the Sun of Righteousness is shedding 
upon the little earth, the eyes of men are more ready 
to see the truth which lay slumbering beneath all the 
varying phases of religious life among the nations of the 
earth. That in the school of earth there are different 
classes, each with its own textbook, in which the same 
story is told with varying degree of detail, always adapted 
to the mental grasp of the children, by whom that 


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textbook is to be read. The diligent and unbiased student 
is beginning to see that the Sacred Scriptures of the 
nations really tell the same story,— the story of God- Man, 
in all its diverse incidents; the story of the upbuilding 
of a soul, from its lowest to its highest point. 

And based upon this slowly growing thought comes 
an attempt at comparison. Men are beginning to discern 
faintly that the principle, which they have discovered in 
their sciences, in their philosophy, in their language, is 
one that is equally applicable to Religion and theology. 
There has grown up in the mental world of men a com- 
parative anatomy, a comparative geology, a comparative 
philology, and similarly there must and will grow a com- 
parative theology. As in language we have learned to 
trace all the varying tongues of the globe back to an 
original family of onomatopoetics, so in comparative 
theology we shall soon be able to trace the structural 
changes of religious thought back to one original fountain- 
head of truth revealed. 

It is here that the New Church is enabled to do its 
most thorough work, owing to the fact that it Las in 
the revelations vouchsafed it a method and a key which 
opens out the channels of communication, the anastomoses 
of thought, the points of contact between the religious 
conceptions of one race and those of another. Into her 
hand is given the most ready means of tracing any one 
thought or series of thoughts through its evolutional 
developments. 

This statement will be seen in clearer light, if an 
illustration be given of the point involved. Every student 
of ethnology is ready to admit that the sacred books of 
the nations bear striking resemblances to one another; 
that for instance the commandments promulgated from 
Mount Sinai do not differ materially from the funda- 
mental laws to be found in the moral and ethical code of 


NEW-CllURCH DOCTRINES 


229 


any nation on the globe; that the teachings of Jesus are 
foreshadowed in those of the great teachers of the world 
at very early periods; that the great fundamental truths 
upon which Christianity is founded differ in no essential 
feature from those upon which other systems of religious 
teaching have been upreared. Familiar as this thought 
is to the student of history and of Religions, it lacks defi- 
niteness until the test of the “ opened Word” is applied 
to it. 

Trace first the idea conveyed by that phrase. All the 
progress of the race consists therein, that men advance 
step by step into a more interior knowledge of the objects 
and phenomena which are thrust upon their attention 
from within and from without. The anatomy of to-day 
differs from that of old, in that it gives a wonderful 
knowledge of the interior detail of structure. It has 
made of the body an open book, in which he who rims 
may read. It has disclosed and laid bare the marvelous 
details of construction concealed within it. God has 
revealed to His children all the marvels of human 
economy and its relations to the remainder of animated 
creation through the pathways of comparative anatomy. 
He quickened here and there a giant brain with the 
thought of the law underlying these associated organisms 
and thus brought out to light and to the recognition of 
men the vast truth to be taught. This is true of every 
science and of every department of human life. And if 
true of all else, why should it not be true of the Word ? 
Why should there not be revealed to men a thought of 
the law of interior structures in this case as in all else ? 
Why should the theologian be refused that which the 
anatomist, the astronomer, the geologist, the ethnologist, 
the philologist have been permitted to learn? Was the 
human body to be made an open book ; were the interiors 
of the earth to be thrown open to the gaze of men; were 


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the inner workings of the forces of nature to be revealed 
to men, and the word to remain a sealed Book? Was 
nature to speak to men and God to remain silent ? Not 
at all. Pari passu with the finding of laws for the reveal- 
ment of the interiors of nature, or the work of God, 
came the teaching of the laws, whereby the revealment 
of the interiors of the Word of God were to be made. 
The hand that quickened master minds to a conception 
of interior knowledge in regard to the structure of the 
earth and of the body must needs quicken a master mind 
also to the conception of the inner workings of the soul. 
And here lies, not the claim of Swedenborg, but the justi- 
fication of that claim. He proposes to give into the 
hands of men a system of interpretation which will do 
for the Word of God what has been done for the work 
of God. Which will reveal the interior structures of the 
Word for the instruction of £he spiritual man, as the 
interior structures of the world and of the body have 
been opened for the instruction of the natural man. And, 
as such a revelation on the ground of natural thought 
shows the relation of the physical structure of man to 
all of animated creation, so the same revelation on spirit- 
ual ground is designed to show, more clearly than all 
else, the relation of the revealed systems of Religion to 
one another. 

Basing the process of reasoning upon that which is 
familiar to the student in other branches of human 
knowledge, we take any one feature of the Religions of 
the nations, seek for one distinct detail and trace that 
along as far as it will carry us, and then apply the 
“science of correspondences,” that process of interpre- 
tation given to the world through Emanuel Swedenborg 
to enable men to study the interiors of the Holy Word 
and to trace distinctly its relation to the revelations given 
to the nations of the world. Let it be understood that, 


ftEW-CHUfcCH 3D0CTRINES 


231 


although we limit ourselves here to one feature, and to 
one particular detail of that feature, the process of 
reasoning is by no means so limited. In fact it can be 
applied to any feature of Religion. Any law and custom, 
any line of thought, any human interest can be traced 
through the Religions of the world in the same way, and 
the connections shown, by means of the “science of 
correspondences. ’ ’ 

We limit ourselves here then to one feature of 
Religion. We take the symbolical form of worship. It 
is sufficiently prevalent, and the knowledge of its preva- 
lence sufficiently large and distinct to require no further 
word of introduction. All nations use symbols in their 
worship. The cross, the star, the folding of hands, the 
uplifting of arms, the bending of the knee, letters, marks, 
tokens, pictures. Let us seek one among these which has 
any one similarity, any one line of resemblance. Choice is 
difficult among the mass of material which offers itself. 
But let us take the winged creature ; and with the mention 
of the word, the winged serpent, the winged bull, the 
winged horse, the winged lion, the winged sphinx, the 
winged cherub, the winged man or angel, immediately 
present themselves to view. And somehow, even in the 
very grouping of them together, the fact of these creat- 
ures all having wings impresses the mind with sufficient 
force to obviate the necessity of a long dissertation on 
coincidence of thought. Of course every rational being 
will be prepared to admit that we have here to do with 
the same thought presented in the garb of different 
expression, according to the nationality of the people 
among whom the symbol arose. 

Trace the development or evolution of the thought 
back of these pictures with me, and we will have learnt 
the outlines of a law, worthy of the most thorough study 
and attention on the part of him who has learned to set 


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NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


aside the unpleasant distinctions of spiritual nationality, 
or Religion, and has come to recognize all men as 
brothers, children of the same Father, to each of whom 
God speaks in his own beloved mother-tongue, and 
according to the nature of his heart. First, then, we let 
the science of correspondences tell us a few facts. Among 
them these, that the wing represents any rational, intel- 
ligent or mental effort designed to uplift the mind up to 
or beyond any given point. Next we let it tell us, that 
in the symbol-language of nature, which is the natural 
language of all peoples, and nations, and tongues and 
tribes, there is first a distinction made, when speaking of 
man as a human being, into the brute nature and the 
human nature of the man. Types of the beast teem in 
all languages, in all sacred literature, in all profane 
literature. The fox, the serpent, the bull, the lion — in 
fact all animals have from time immemorial served to 
express characteristics of the human nature. The bear, 
the bull and the lamb of financial circles are as legitimate 
expressions of this thought, as the lion of Great Britain, 
the eagle of America, the bear of Russia. It is natural 
for people to use these types in just this way; and being 
natural, being spontaneous, proves this habit of expressing 
human traits under animal figures to be of Divine origin. 
For “vox populi, vox Dei ,” may have more meanings 
than the traditional one of simple brute force. 

So far the thought coincides with the glimpses attain- 
able without the science of correspondences. But another 
step, and a more important one in the line of our subject, 
is the one opened out by a second suggestion made by 
this science. The science of correspondences teaches us 
to see in the opened Word certain definite outlines of 
pictures representing certain definite evolutions of human 
character. Anyone who reads with care the story, for 
instance, of the ark of the Lord will note the various 


NEW-CHtfRCH DOCTRINES 


233 


evolutional points of the picture. He will find the picture 
first introduced as the ark of Noah afloat upon the broad 
expanse of the waters. He will next see the ark as a 
smaller picture on a smaller body of water. It is the 
little ark in which lies the babe Moses. Next he sees the 
ark as a box carried about upon the land, and next he 
sees it in heaven. And a study of the details of the evolu- 
tion, if of this type, of its rise from the water to the land 
and thence to the sky, the change of its contents, the con- 
ditions of its environment, the miracles attending its 
various journeyings — all this would be of large interest if 
time permitted us to stop. 

But return again to the group of winged creatures 
cited, and advance along this line of thought the second 
step, that is, let them be so grouped as to demonstrate 
the evolutional idea. Give the thought somewhat in this 
way. Admitting that the intelligent minds of every 
nation were able to see the value of a symbol, it would 
be most natural to conceive that they would be con- 
fronted by the same problems, and that their solutions 
would differ according to their genius and their nation- 
ality. Let us suppose a problem, and have it faced by 
the religous philosophers of different nations. The 
problem common to all mankind may be this: In every 
life, whether its lines be cast in pleasant places, or 
whether the shadow of the unknown be upon it from its 
very inception, there must needs arise changes of 
state. There must needs be day and night. There must 
needs be times of peace and of unrest. There must 
needs be times when the mind is in a state of content- 
ment and when it is in a state of distress. The one 
state satisfies all its own demands, but the other always 
presents problems for solution. When the mind is at 
peace, when it is quiet, when it is content, no questions 

16 


234 


NEW-CHUKCH CONGKESS 


can possibly arise, no troubles darken the horizon. But 
when the times of discontent come, when the night 
shadows the earth of the mental world, when the spirit 
is touched with the keen sense of its own unrest, then 
arise the problems of life; and first and chiefest among 
them, the eternal question: “What shall I do to obtain rest, 
contentment, peace?” Here it is that the answers of 
religious philosophers begin to differ. From the far 
north comes one answer. To overcome the thought of 
unrest, saith the philosopher of that region, sink the 
mind in oblivion. Sink it into the heaviness and stupor 
of the sense world. Let the mind be blunted by such 
sense impressions as will dull its pain. “Go, see, hear, 
satisfy the cravings of the senses, forget yourself in the 
beauties of the world and in its allurements. And so will 
you be lifted beyond the thought of pain. You will for- 
get pain.” But the sense-world of man is represented 
in the science of correspondences by the serpent. Hence, 
the north puts wings on the serpent, and we have the 
dragon born, the dragon whom St. George fights, the 
dragon which attacks the woman of the Apocalypse of 
John; the dragon and the griffin of the Saxon; the drink- 
evil of the modern temperance reformer, the great ser- 
pent, which to him arises from the wine cup and is called 
“that old serpent, Satan,” ready to deceive and destroy 
a whole world, yea, and to pull down one-third of the 
stars in heaven. When the difficulties of life are 
overcome by any activity of the senses, whether in the 
pleasant form of change and travel, in the more vicious 
form of drug or alcohol, in the yet more vicious form of 
sexual crime, then are wings put on the serpent. 

But other philosophers found other answers to the 
question. Sinking care in pleasures of sense does not 
overcome care. It does not strike at the root of the evil. 
And Assyria voices another thought. She tells her 


NEW -CHURCH DOCTRINES 


235 


children that there is in every man a certain amount of 
physical resistance. There is a certain dogged resistance 
to care in simple work. Just work. Work hard. Give 
your hands employment; keep busy. Slave, toil, carry 
the burdens of the day. Set your teeth firmly. Take up 
the yoke like a man. . . . And the Assyrian put 

wings on the bull. 

And the Parsee found yet another answer. It is not 
physical, dogged strength that overcomes trouble. There 
is a certain moral strength requisite. Work may blunt 
the senses to the pain of discontent for a time, but soon 
they will awake again, and then there must be pitted 
against the opposing forces of misfortune the moral 
strength of the man. He must meet the questions of life 
not with the inebriety and riot of the senses, not with the 
doggedness* of resignation. He must stand up against 
them with the dignity of man. . . . And he put 

wings on the lion. 

And yet again the Greek found another answer. To 
the more delicate structure of the Greek mind the thought 
of sense-pleasure, the thought of dogged resignation, 
even the thought of self-poised dignity came with an odor 
of the non-msthetic. “No, my friend,” he said to the 
questioner and the to question. “ Thought is the man. I 
think, therefore, I am. Ponder the questions well. Exer- 
cise the power of intelligence over them. Solve your 
life problems intelligently, and they will be forever 
solved.” . . • And he puts wings on the horse. 

But to the Egyptian was left the nearer approach to 
the true solution. He pondered the matter well. It 
seemed to him that trouble is not really overcome by the 
exercise of any one faculty. There are always more. 
Two, perhaps even three. There is a certain amount of 
physical resistance, of brute force, and also a certain 
amount of true humanity necessary. u Not that it is for 


236 NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 

me to decide what particular traits are employed in the 
overcoming of misfortune,” he would say to his pupil, 
“that is not for me to say. So much, however, I am 
assured is true that, when trouble is really to be met, 
both the brute and the human side of man’s nature must 
engage in the struggle.” . . . And he made a com- 

bination of the brute and the human and put wings on the 
sphinx. 

And now the thought had grown to adult proportions 
The distinctness of single traits and the necessity of co- 
operation had been taught to God’s children all the 
world over. He had done as He had ever done in the 
development of a thought. He had entrusted the various 
parts of the one thought to different nations, just as He 
entrusts the various organic functions of the body to its 
different organs. He makes the eye do all the seeing, 
the ear do all the hearing, the foot do all the walking, the 
heart do all the throbbing and the brain do all the think- 
ing for the whole body. And he gathers them altogether 
into one great unit. So, when the thought had so far 
developed, He gathered its various points together into 
one type. So evident a gathering together as this can 
nowhere else be found, Listen what He taught the Jew 
to say: “Trouble is overcome only by a thorough co-oper- 
ation of the different traits of the brute and the human 
nature of man. No one faculty alone, no two faculties 
alone will meet the demands of the question. Trouble is 
not really overcome, man is not really lifted beyond the 
mists of his mental valley, until he is able to give full play 
to all his faculties.” . . . And he gathered the thought 
together under the surveillance of Providence into this 
distinctively artificial composite figure: “And out of the 
midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. 
And this was their appearance: they had the likenesses 
of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one 


NEW- CHURCH DOCTRINES 


237 


had four wings. And their feet were straight feet. And 
the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot, 
and they sparkled like the color of polished copper. And 
they had the hands of a man under their wings on their 
four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. 
Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not 
when they went; they went every one straight forward. 
As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face 
of a man and the face of a lion on the right side; and 
they four had the face of an ox on the left side; 
they four also had the face of an eagle. Thus were 
their faces, and their wings were stretched upward.’’ 
(Ezekiel i.) How patiently He waits for the growth of 
His symbols through the channels of the national mind; 
and then how diligently He joins the whole picture into 
one, and how unostentatiously He says “And their wings 
were joined,” and how calmly He counsels His despond- 
ing children “and their wings were stretched upward.” 
And so the Jewish scribe put wings on the cherubim; 
strange composite growths of a single truth. Marvelous 
evolution of a symbol through the heart of the nations ! 

But the world grew older. Gradually through the 
battles of the ages the great struggle of the man and the 
beast is drawing to its end. Gradually brute nature is 
being subdued. Men are no longer the refined animals 
they were a few centuries ago. They are beginning to 
be men. God is nearer the end of His great work now, 
which began with the words “Let us make man,” and 
which has not yet reached its end. He is gradually mak- 
ing that man whom He promised Himself in the begin- 
ning. He is gradually fashioning into the hearts of His 
children the blessed lines of true humanity, and the 
beast is slowly being overcome. The number of the 
man, that is of the angel, is being written upon the tab- 
lets, where once was engraved the number of the beast, 


238 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


And synchronous with the ripening of this thought in 
the race-heart grows the final evolution of the symbol, 
and the Christian philosopher is permitted to say to his 
pupil: “It is not the single faculty of the man that over- 
comes trouble. It is not the developement of any number 
of faculties and their co- ordination in any number of ways. 
It is the development of the whole man that answers the 
problem of life and lifts man upward beyond the valley 
of the shadow of death; — and he put wings on the man, 
and called the figure — an angel. 

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

And thus in every phenomenon of religious life, in 
every problem presented by the varying ages of the 
world, “ the opened Word,” the revealed knowledge of 
correspondence, gives into the hands of men the ability 
to understand and to see the larger law that lies back of 
all life’s littlenesses. And once the larger law is seen the 
question has attained its answer; the problem has reached 
its solution. For it is the larger law which men must 
needs learn to see. It is the greater unit which is back 
of all the changing attitudes of life which men want to 
grasp and to understand. When once we have attained 
a knowledge of this giant unit, whose distorted and broken 
shadow falls upon the pathway before us, all questionings 
of the shadow cease, for we have realized the light behind 
it. The science of the opened Word will teach men to 
grasp the larger unit back of the fractions which men 
have created. It will enable them to understand, — faintly, 
perhaps, and imperfectly, yet to understand, — the One, 
the Unit, the Great One, who is and who was and who 
shall be, the Almighty; from whom all life proceeds; 
from whom all blessings flow; from whorfi all souls are 
born; upon whom all things depend, and from whom all 
things proceed, as the branches proceed from the vine; as 


NEW- CHURCH DOCTRINES 


239 


the arms of the candlestick proceeded from its central 
shaft; as the horns of the altar proceeded from the 
corners of it. 

And men instructed from the opened Word will cease 
to study the history of men ; they will study the history 
of Man ; for back of the little history of men, back of 
their little battles and victories, their little successes and 
failures, lies the great history of Man , the giant-man of 
the race. And they will forget to study the problem of 
the churches. It will have sunk in the problem of Ihe 
Church , — God’s great school of many classes, where the 
children of His mercy learn the lessons of His truth, and 
whence they graduate through the gateway of death, 
through the great final a Commencement,” the real begin- 
ning of life, the life hereafter. And in its classrooms are 
all His children studying carefully, diligently, wisely, 
excitedly, painfully; each with his own little problem 
before him; each with his own way of solving it; each 
with his own manner of understanding the Great Teacher. 
And in infinite tenderness He speaks to all His children; 
unto each in his own sweet mother -tongue, which is sweeter 
to him than honey or the honeycomb, and more beautiful 
than the stars of a summer night. And unto each of His 
children He gently whispers the secret of life: “Come 
unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest.” “ Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the 
ends of the earth; for I am God and there is none else.” 



CHAPTER IY 


THE PLANTING OF THE NEW 
CHURCH 

I 

SWEDENBORG’S WRITINGS AND HIS DISPOSITION OF 
THEM 

BY THE REY. C. J. N. MANBY, GOTTENBURG 

In the Government of Providence nothing is done 
suddenly, without preparation. Great evenfs will have 
great and long preparations. The morning star 
with the aurora prepares fof the coming day and the 
day* star. 

The Second Coming of the Lord was to be a most 
momentous event for the whole humanity of the earth, to 
say the least. The preparations for that immeasurably 
grand event were going on during centuries. The 
Reformation was one of them ; the invention of the print- 
ing press was another, and a preparation for the Refor- 
mation itself. The inventions succeed each other with 
astonishing velocity. It may be difficult to determine 
which of them is the grandest and most important one 
generally speaking, and we have here at the World’s Fair 
the most favorable occasion to see and admire thousands 
of them; but circumscribing the field to spirit more 
strictly speaking, as the proper object of the Parliament 
of Religions, you all will, I dare hope, concede the palm 
to the printing press, 

There is, certainly, no better missionary than a book. 
A representative of the “ living voice ” would perhaps 

241 


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NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


quarrel with you if you happen to be of another opinion 
than he or she; but the book you may lay aside and it 
will lie there patiently, silently, until you perhaps choose 
to take it up. 

A new time; new means. The first Christian Gospel, 
although that, too, had to be laid down and fixed in 
books, had to be propagated mainly by the living voice, 
the spoken word. The second Christian Gospel, or, if 
you like, the Gospel for and in the second Christian 
Church, “ New Jerusalem,” we can scarcely doubt will be 
propagated mainly by the printed page. That comes 
where no other missionary comes; that leaves, more than 
any other agent, fellow-men in liberty and free-will undis- 
turbed. And this our time, perhaps more than any 
previous, demands for its members, at least of the old 
Christian nations, liberty— liberty of thought and liberty 
of action. The translatiDg of the Bible, the Word in its 
letter into hundreds of languages and the spreading 
broadcast of this holy book over all parts of the earth, 
goes on as the mightiest preparation, because the most 
necessary, to the glorious Second Coming of the Lord as 
the Word in its “ Spirit and Life.” 

The New Church believes that the Second Coming of 
the Lord is an accomplished fact already, by the Lord’s 
revealing of the internal sense of the Word, through His 
chosen servant, Emanuel Swedenborg , from his very 
youth prepared for this grand work. But to the individ- 
ual members of mankind, this inner light, with its life, can 
come only gradually as also the Gospel of the Lord’s 
First Coming was spread gradually over the world, — so 
slowly indeed, that hundreds of millions of people will 
hear of the Lord’s First Coming first in this age of His 
Second Coming, and perhaps together with the light 
from His Second Coming, so that the “Sun of Righteous- 
ness” will shine at once with “the light of seven days.” 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


243 


Already the printed pages illumined by the light of the 
Lord’s Second Coming have been spreading broadcast, 
and some rays have begun to shine also over the non- 
Christian world, for instance India and Africa. 

In order to show Swedenborg’s own thought concern- 
ing the relation of the printing press to his work as the 
herald of the Lord’s Second Coming I may let himself 
speak. In his last work, the True Christian Religion , 
779, he says: “Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself 
in Person, as just shown above, and nevertheless has fore- 
told that He will come and found a new Church which is 
the New Jerusalem, it follows that He will do this by 
means of a man who can not only receive the doctrines of 
this Church with the understanding but can also publish 
them by the press. That the Lord manifested Himself 
before me, His servant, and sent me to this office, and 
that He afterward opened the sight of my spirit, and so 
has intromitted me into the spiritual world, and has 
granted me to see the heavens and the hells, also to con- 
verse with angels and spirits, and this now uninterrupt- 
edly for many years, I testify in truth.” 

The Second Coming of the Lord ought to be accom- 
panied by a “last judgment;” such a one as took place at 
the Lord’s First Coming, as the Lord says: “Now is the 
judgment of this world” (St. John xii :41) ; and Swedenborg 
testifies that such a judgment has taken place at the end 
of every “age” or dispensation of the Church. Such an 
event cannot take place in this natural world of ours, 
but in the spiritual world, where we go by what we call 
“death,” the death of the material body. But the effects 
of such a judgment are to be seen in this world in forms, 
especially of new light and new liberty. And I think we 
may, if we like, see those effects of the judgment both at 
the Lord’s First and at His Second Coming. The latter, 
Swedenborg says, took place in the year 1757. This 


244 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


much has been said in order to understand Swedenborg’s 
disposition or arrangement of his writings — afterwards 
we will speak of the disposition in the sense of distribution. 

The year 1757 forms the line of demarcation between 
the two ages of the Church, the First Christian, and the 
Second Christian or New Jerusalem age. A revelation 
of new truth had to be made, as we should expect, before 
the judgment. And so it was. Before the year 1757 
Swedenborg published (in London) his first and largest 
theological work, Arcana Coelestia. This work, eight 
large quarto volumes, is to be considered as a fountain 
work in which all his later writings, in a certain 
sense, are enclosed, and from which they are brought 
forth, some of them almost verbatim, others in their main 
principles. Arcana Coelestia or Heavenly Secrets is an 
exegetical or explanatory work, giving the inner meaning 
of Genesis and Exodus, but in such a way that in a 
manner the whole Word is explained, Swedenborg always 
following that recognized principle to let Scripture 
explain Scripture. In that work, of course, we have the 
common law laid down according to which the whole 
Word is written, the law of correspondences between 
natural things as effects and spiritual ones as causes. 
Besides in Arcana there are especially between the chap - 
ters interpersed doctrinals and other things of use for 
knowledge, faith and life. Thus we say, the Word has 
been opened in that grand work; and the opening of the 
Word constitutes the Lord's coming again as the Word 
to His Church. For in the open Word we see the Lord 
Jesus Christ as the one only God in heaven and on eartb, 
the Word in its innermost sense treating only about the 
Lord. But created as we are, images of the Lord, we 
have in the lower senses of the Word, according to the 
law of correspondences, expositions of the regeneration 
of man and of the Church here and in heaven, as the 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


245 


Kingdom of our Lord. And so we have in that work a 
Psychology, a doctrine of the soul, of such grandeur 
and beauty as God only can give, for it is from His Word. 
Says Swedenborg in the before cited number (T. C. R., 
779), “I testify in truth . . . that from the first day of 
that call I have not received anything which pertains to 
the doctrines of that Church from any angel, but from 
the Lord alone while I have read the Word.” 

On the other side of the line of demarkation, the year 
1757, we have of necessity a series of works that could 
not be given before, and among them also an exegetical 
one, Apocalypsis Revelata (the Apocalypse Revealed), an 
explanation of the Book of Revelation. As is the case 
with all Biblical Prophecies, they cannot be fully under- 
stood before their fulfillment, so, also, with this last pro- 
phetical book in the Word. That could not fully be 
understood, and thus explained before the last judgment, 
because it is a prophecy about that event and the states 
of the Church before and after that. Therefore, the 
Apocalypse Revealed was written after the judgment, 
and published at Amsterdam in the year 1766 in a heavy 
quarto volame. 

It was, we have said, necessary to open the Word 
before 1757, before the consummation of that “age,” as it 
was necessary for the Lord to come the first time before 
the consummation or full end of the Jewish age, and to 
preach then the “Kingdom of heaven.” The end of the 
Jewish age was come when the Lord executed the last 
judgment upon that “age,” which judgment (in the 
spiritual world) was ultimated and represented before the 
external senses in this world by the destruction of Jeru- 
salem and the Jewish temple, the last remnant of the 
representative dispensation. The momentous event called 
“Last Judgment” executed in 1757, Swedenborg has 
described in a special minor work, “ Concerning the Last 


246 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


Judgment published in London, 1758, and in a “ Con- 
tinuation Concerning the Last Judgment and the Spiritual 
World ,” published in Amsterdam, 1763, and of course in 
the before-mentioned work on the Apocalypse . 

Other writings, more or less dependent on the same 
act, and therefore to be written or at least published after 
that were: On Heaven and Hell “from things heard and 
seen,” or concerning the spiritual world as a most real 
world, where men go immediately from this one and 
choose their homes therein according to their ruling love; 
On the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, mostly 
extracted from the Arcana, in its main articles an exceed- 
ingly concise doctrinal exposition ; On the White House, 
an explanation of that subject in the 19tli chapter of the 
Apocalypse; On the Earths in the Universe , stating that 
the planets in the various solar systems are destined by 
the Creator as seminaries for human beings, and thus for 
heaven. (Those four works, with exception of Heaven 
and Hell not very extensive, were published in London, 
1758). These were followed by The Doctrine of the New 
Jerusalem : 1. “ Concerning the Lord” 2. “Concerning 

the Sacred Scriptures ” as the very Word of God and the 
means of conjunction between the heavens and the earth; 
3. i( The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem” 
“according to the Ten Commandments,” the opening 
sentence being: “All Religion has relation to life, and 
the life of Religion is to do good;” 4. “ Concerning 
Faith,” as an “internal acknowledgment of the truth.” 
Those small but really “ Leading Doctrines,” as they are 
called, were published in Amsterdam, 1763. Two writings, 
more extensive, called with the common name “ Angelic 
Wisdom:” 1. “Concerning the Divine Love and the 
Divine Wisdom ,” on the nature of God and the creation 
and preservation of the world. Of that work it has been 
said that it is the “focus in which the rays of the new 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


247 


light are concentrated.” We have in it an exposition of 
the important doctrine of “ discrete degrees,” the very 
key, one may say, to the science of correspondences — a 
“correspondence” expressing the relation between dis- 
crete degrees, or more especially between the natural and 
the spiritual. (Amsterdam, 1763.) 2. “ Concerning the 

Divine Providence ,” as the “ Government of the Lord’s 
Divine Love and Divine Wisdom.” (Amsterdam, 1764.) 
Further: “The Delights of Wisdom Concerning Conjugal 
Love,” and its opposite, an extensive work presenting in 
strong colors the spirituality and holiness of true marriage 
as a union of minds and souls, being an expression 
of the union of Love and Wisdom in the Lord and 
from the Lord. (Amsterdam, 1768.) “A Brief Exposi- 
tion of the Doctrine of the Neiv Church ,” contrasting 
the new and the old doctrines, and being a forerunner to 
Swedenborg’s last work. (Amsterdam, 1769.) “Inter- 
course Between the Soul and the Body,” a small treatise 
on an important subject, illustrating also the doctrine of 
the discrete degrees and correspondences (London, 1769). 
And lastly: “ The True Christian Religion , containing 
the universal theology of the New Church foretold by the 
Lord in Daniel (chapter vii: 13-19) and in the Apocalypse 
(chapter xxi: 1, 2),” a large quarto volume, published in 
Amsterdam, 1771 (the year before Swedenborg’s decease), 
wonderfully arranged in its fourteen chapters with their 
subdivisions, as a “City” with its streets and lanes, to use 
the very correspondent! al image from the Holy Scripture, 
in which the soul may abide. 

We speak here to-day of “the planting of the New 
Church” in the world. Emanuel Swedenborg must first 
have that New Church planted in himself, as the Lord’s 
disciples must have the First Christian Church planted 
in themselves; and then he must be the first agent of 


248 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


planting it in the world about him. This he did mainly, 
if not exclusively, by distributing his writings, as we shall 
now see. 

Swedenborg’s writings were intended to be the 
property of the whole world, and I think we may see a 
providential act in the very fact that they were written 
in Latin, a “dead” language not exposed to be changed, 
and acessible alike to all civilized nations. It seems also 
to be significant that they were published in London and 
Amsterdam , the then two centres of the commercial 
world, I would almost say the “heart and lungs” of 
Christendom, and thus most fit to be centres of distri- 
bution of a world’s literature to be. 

Remarkably enough the English was the first language 
into which anything of Swedenborg’s writings was trans- 
lated and thus made accessible to the large public. We re- 
member that the Arcana was printed in London and the 
second volume was issued both in Latin and in English , 
the translation being made by Mr. John Merchant. Yet 
the work was not spread very quickly, although it was 
“exceedingly cheap.” Swedenborg notes in his diary 
(N. 4422) that not more than four copies had been sold 
within two months. But Swedenborg used generously to 
give away his books. In all cases, there were no more than 
nine copies of the whole Arcana remaining when the 
Rev. Arvid Ferelius, pastor of the Swedish Church in Lon- 
don, after Swedenborg’s last communion, received from 
Swedenborg’s own hands a copy of that work, and those 
nine were to be sent to Holland , as he himself narrates. 
One of the best sources of information of Swedenborg’s 
distribution of his writings is his letters to his friend, the 
Rev. Dr. Beyer of Gottenburg, one of the first receivers 
and perhaps the first public propagator of the new doc- 
trines. Some hints we also have in Swedenborg’s writ- 
ings published by himself. On the first of October, 1765, 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


249 


Swedenborg sent to Dr. Beyer two copies of the begin- 
ning of the Apocalypse Revealed and on the eighth of 
April, the following year he sent him eight copies of the 
same work now completed, one for himself, “ the rest for 
distribution.” In March Dr. Beyer had expressed his 
delight in the way the glorious truths were beginning to 
shine before him, and asked for certain volumes of the 
Arcana that he had not been able to obtain. Some 
volumes he seems to have received immediately after his 
acquaintance with Swedenborg, probably in the summer 
of 1765. In August, 1766, Swedenborg wrote him from 
London: “I send you herewith a complete set of the 
Arcana Coelestia, and likewise the last volume of those 
which were still wanting in yours.” In February, 1767, 
Swedenborg wrote to Beyer, amongst many other things, 
“The Universities in Christendom are now first being 
instructed, whence will come new ministers.” 

On this we wish to lay the utmost stress. The 
universities would be centers in various countries for 
spreading the new light, or at least depositories or treas- 
uries for these books, which were as many granaries for 
future centuries. Consequently we find Swedenborg 
distributing his works among universities and libraries 
with a free hand, till the editions were exhausted. So 
he writes to the Secretary of State in Stockholm: “I 
have at last finished the explanation of the Book of Reve- 
lation and circulated it in all the universities in Holland, 
Germany, France and EDgland, and am going to send 
seventy copies to Stockholm, of which your honor will 
please take five and give them to the following senators : 
Senator Hopken, Senator Scheffer, likewise to Norden- 
crantz, the Counselor of Commerce, and the Bishops 
Menander and Serenius ; the other five you will please to 
distribute among your friends. The remaining sixty 

17 


250 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


copies I desire to be kept safe until my return home. 

I intend to distribute them among the academies and 
libraries of Sweden, and among clergymen who are quali- 
fied for a more than ordinary position. Four I intend 
to present to the court, and the remainder to universities 
and theological seminaries in foreign parts.” 

In March, 1769, Swedenborg writes again to Dr. 
Beyer. “ I had the pleasure of receiving yours of 
November 23, 1768. The reason I did % not answer it 
sooner was that I postponed until a little work was pub- 
lished, entitled A Brief Exposition of the Doctrines of 
the New Church Signified by the New Jerusalem in the 
Book of Revelation , in which work are fully shown the 
errors of the hitherto received doctrine of justification by 
faith alone, and the imputation of righteousness or merit 
of Christ. This treatise was sent by me to all the clergy 
in Holland, and will come into the hands of the most 
eminent in Germany. I have been informed that they 
have attentively perused it, and that some have already 
discovered the truth, while others do not know which 
way to turn; for what is written therein is sufficient to 
convince any one that the above mentioned doctrine is 
the cause of our having at the present day no theology 
in Christendom.” “ Here (in Amsterdam) they frequently 
inquire of me respecting the New Church, when it will 
come. To which I answer — By degrees, in proportion 
as the doctrine of justification and imputation is extir- 
pated; which perhaps will be brought about by this work. 
It is known that the Christian Church did not take its rise 
immediately after the ascension of Christ, but increased 
gradually.” . . . 

The Rev. Dr. and Lector Beyer, together with his 
friend and colleague, the Rev. Dr. and Lector Rosen, also 
of Gottenburg, did not go free from persecution, but they 
defended themselves manfully. Swedenborg himself 


PLANTING THE CHURCHl 


251 


wrote to the king on their behalf. In his statement, dated 
in Stockholm under the tenth of May, 1770, he says, 
amongst other things, the following of special importance 
to our subject, “That our Savior visibly revealed Himself 
before me and commanded me to do what I have done, 
and what I have still to do; and that thereupon He per 
mitted me to have intercourse with angels and spirits, I 
have declared before the whole of Christendom, as well 
in England, Holland, Germany and Denmark, as in 
France and Spain, and also on various occasions in this 
country before their Royal Majesties, and especially when 
I enjoyed the grace to eat at their tables, in the presence 
of the whole Royal family, and also of five Senators and 
others, at which time my mission constituted the sole topic 
of conversation. Subsequently, also, I have revealed this 
before many Senators; and among these Count Tessin, 
Count Bonde and Count Hopken have found it in truth to 
be so; and Count Hopken, a gentleman of enlightened 
understanding, still continues to believe so, without men- 
tioning many others, as well at home as abroad, among 
whom are both kings and princes.” . . , 

In the same statement he speaks of his book De Amove 
Conjugiali (Conjugal Love) of which a small box had 
been sent from Holland for the Diet in Nonkoping, 
Sweden, 1769, but had been confiscated by Swedenborg’s 
relative, Bishop Felenius. He refers to a place in that 
work and says: “His Excellency Count Ekeblad and His 
Excellency Count Bjelke possess the book.” 

Noteworthy is it that Swedenborg sent copies of the 
said letter to the King, to the Chancellor of Justice, and 
to the three Swedish Universities. In April, 1771, he 
wrote from Amsterdam to Dr. Beyer, — “ I wonder that 
they keep stirring up this affair at Gottenburg. I will 
complain of them at the next Diet when I send over my 
Universa Theologia Novi Cceli et Novae Ecclesice (‘ The 


252 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


True Christian Religion,’) which will leave the press 
towards the close of the month of June. I will send two 
copies of this work to each House,” (the Houses of the 
Swedish Diet then w r ere four) “ and request them to 
appoint for its consideration a general committee from 
all the Houses, in order to put an end to the affair 
in this way. I am certain of this, that after the appear- 
ance of the book referred to, the Lord our Savior will 
operate both mediately and immediately towards the 
establishment throughout the whole of Christendom of a 
New Church based on this ‘ Theology.’ The New Heaven, 
out of which the New Jerusalem will descend will very 
soon be completed.” On July 2d, he again writes to Dr. 
Beyer, — “ Captain Sjoberg informed me that he was com- 
missioned by Mr. Hammarberg to purchase some sets of 
the works written by me, namely, four of each, and among 
them also the last book which appeared a few days ago. 
On account of the strict prohibition the captain did not 
dare to purchase more than one copy of each; besides 
this I presented him with a copy of the last work pub- 
lished. Perhaps Mr. Hammarberg may know of some 
way by which he could receive another copy if it were 
sent afterwards. In a few days I will send to Stockholm 
by the skipper Casper Nyberg two copies of the work 
just published, entitled Vera Religio Christiana, one for 
Bishop Menander and the other for Bishop Serenius; and 
among other things I will give them to understand that 
as soon as the Diet is properly organized I shall tender a 
formal complaint of the course of proceeding of the 
Privy Council in the Gottenburg matter, in respect to you 
and myself; from which I hope a favorable result. . . . 
With my kindest regards to Dr. Rosen I remain, with all 
friendship and affection, your most obedient servant and 
friend, 


Emanuel Swedenborg.” 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


253 


The “ stirred up affair at Gottenburg ” at last was 
silenced. The Doctors Beyer and Rosen were allowed 
to retain their offices but were prohibited from teaching 
theological matters, because of their “erroneous doctrinal 
opinions.” Swedenborg alluded to the persecution now 
mentioned in his work, True Christian Religion (N. 137). 
Regarding the distribution of his writings, he speaks also 
in his published works, for instance in The Apocalypse 
Revealed (N. 716), where we read: “I have spoken in 
the spiritual world with certain bishops of England; and 
there concerning the small works published at London in 
the year 1758, which were ‘ Concerning Heaven and Hell,’ 
‘ Concerning the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly 
Doctrine,’ ‘ Concerning the Last Judgment,’ ‘ Concerning 
the White House ’ and ‘ Concerning the Earths in the 
Universe;’ which small works were presented to all the 
bishops, and to many of the nobles or lords. They said 
that they received them and saw them, but did not think 
them valuable, although skillfully written, and likewise 
that they persuaded as many as they could not to read 
them. I asked, ‘ Why so ? when yet there are there 
Arcana concerning heaven and hell, and concerning the 
life after death, and other things most worthy of atten- 
tion, which have been revealed by the Lord for those who 
will be of His New Church, which is the new Jerusalem.’ 
But they said, ‘What is this to us?’ and they poured out 
censures against them as formerly in the world.’ 

Thus having seen how copiously, and in all directions 
Swedenborg distributed his writings in almost all coun- 
tries of Europe, we can not wonder that we hear of friends 
to him and his doctrines from his own days, in almost 
every country. Thus we know of early friends in Eng- 
land. The Rev. Thomas Hartley , a clergyman of the 
Church of England, Rector of Winwick, Northampton- 
shire, was one of them. From him we have a most 


254 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


respectful letter to Swedenborg, written in the year 1769. 
Mr. Hartley translated and prefaced several of his works 
for the English public. Dr. H. Messiter , a physician, 
was another English friend. Swedenborg’s confidence in 
Dr. Messiter was shown by his requesting him to send 
some of his theological works to the Professors of Divinity 
in the Scottish universities. So Dr. Messiter wrote to 
the Professors of Divinity at Edinburgh, at Glasgow, and 
at Aberdeen. 

In Germany the known prelate Oettinger translated 
and published, during Swedenborg’s lifetime, certain 
portions of the “ Arcana Ccelestia.” Jung Stilling 
esteemed Swedenborg, and perhaps more so the renowned 
Lavater, who wrote two letters to Swedenborg, the one 
of Sept. 24, 1769, showing that Swedenborg’s works 
had very much influenced his views. The celebrated 
Father Oberlin of Ban de la Roche (born in Strass- 
burg in the year 1740) was a warm friend, in pos- 
session, we see, at least of the work “On Heaven and 
Hell.” Of Kant we know that he purchased the “Arcana 
Ccelestia,” but finding that it contained only explications 
of Scripture, he could not find any interest in it. In Den- 
mark General Tuxen became acquainted with Sweden- 
borg at Elsinore in the year 1770, and became a warm 
friend of his writings. Says he: “For my part I thank 
our Lord, the God of Heaven, that I have been 
acquainted with this great man and his writings.” Also a 
Russian friend, we hear, says Robsahm in his memoirs 
(N. 19): “The chaplain of the Imperial Russian Lega- 
tion, Oronoskow, who was in Stockholm during the time 
of the ambassador. Count Ostermann, was a monk of 
the Alexander-Newsky order, and led an orderly and pious 
life. He became acquainted with me, and I lent him 
Swedenborg’s book which he said he read with the great- 
est delight.” He desired to see Swedenborg, and to talk 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


255 


with this remarkable man. I complied with his desire, 
and invited Swedenborg and him to dinner, in company 
with several named friends. As to Finland we know 
that it in Swedenborg’s time belonged to Sweden, one of 
“the three Swedish universities” before mentioned, being 
there. Concerning France we know that, in the beginning 
of the last quarter of the former century, a Paris book- 
seller sent to Amsterdam, and bought up all the copies 
he could find of the True Christian Religion. 

This glance will enable us to see how Swedenborg’s 
writings during his liftime were spread in Europe, mostly 
by his own exertions. Epecially in Sweden there have 
been, and yet are, many signs of the wide circulation of 
Swedenborg’s own editions. During my staying at the 
university of Upsala, as a student there, it happened 
very often that such books were sold at the book 
auctions. Thus I bought a copy of the Apocalypsis 
Revelata in 1866 , precisely a hundred years after its 
being printed; but — discouraging to say — it was not cut. 
Also copies of several other works of the original editions 
I have been happy to purchase in somewhat similar way, 
but they did not seem to have been read. 

Emanuel Swedenborg’s own editions of his theolog- 
ical writings — all of them in Latin — are to be found, I 
think, in almost all parts of the earth, being more and 
more searched for. They will soon have to be weighted 
up with gold. Thus the seeds have been sown from 
which the New Church has sprung up in various places. 
This sowing has gone on until our days and certainly will 
go on increasingly in days to come. The New Church has, 
to use another image, grown up already to a tree spread- 
ing its branches to parts of the earth where they in 
Swedenborg’s lifetime had no knowledge either of his 
writings nor even of Christianity. 


256 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


II 

THE PLANTING OF THE NEW CHURCH IN ENGLAND 
BY JAMES SPEIRS, LONDON 

The writings of Swedenborg purport to contain a new 
revelation of truth given for the especial purpose of 
reviving the Church upon earth, and doing so with a 
purity and spirituality due to the doctrines being drawn 
not from the letter which instructed Jew and Christian, 
but from their disclosing to men on earth the Word 
which is settled in heaven. We have no occasion in this 
place to detail these doctrines or to attempt to prove them. 
That will be done by other writers. What we have to 
state on the threshold is that a new system of doctrines 
having been accepted, they have naturally given rise to 
a new organization constituted of those who in the past 
received them as revealed truth, and of those now living 
who so receive them. . . . 

The few, therefore, to whom the Scriptural expositions 
contained in Swedenborg’s writings carried conviction 
at once began to direct the attention of their friends and 
fellows to them. And as the only effectual way of 
doing so in this country, they individually or collectively 
proceeded to translate and print and circulate them as 
far as they had the means and power to do so. The 
sowing of the seed proceeded in this manner, with very 
great activity from 1778, when the Rev. T. Hartley, 
rector of Winwick, translated Heaven and Hell , followed 
by the True Christian Religion in 1781, translated by the 
Rev. John Clowes, M. A., rector of St. John’s, Manchester, 
Mr. Clowes was indeed the Apostle Paul of the New 
Church, not as an organization, but as a heaven-given 
system of doctrine. He taught New- Church doctrine in 
the existing sanctuaries of worship, just as our Lord 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


257 


Himself taught in the synagogues. The first attempt at 
united action on the part of supporters of these new 
views was in the formation of a society, in order to print 
them, which was founded in Manchester in 1782. Mr. 
Clowes translated seventeen volumes of Swedenborg, 
including the largest and also most important of his 
works, called the Arcana Coelestia, besides writing fifty 
volumes — some very large works — in their exposition and 
defense. Mr. Clowes’ high personal qualities, to which 
De Quincey so beautifully testified, gave him, independ- 
ently of his high scholarship and great ability, a power 
and influence which were far-reaching. This is shown 
in the cluster of societies formed around Manchester, 
within to the radius of his influence, which still exist to 
witness to his zeal and devotion. Lancashire became 
then a great stronghold of the New Church, and it con- 
tinues to remain so, as is evident from the fact that a 
third of all the societies in Great Britain are situated in 
it, and more than one-half of its entire registered mem- 
bers. The force of spiritual consanguinity is shown in 
the further fact that these societies originated as pro- 
fessedly New-Church Societies, in opposition to Mr. 
Clowes’ judgment of what was wise and proper. He 
taught them the doctrines; they thereafter formed their 
own special organizations, in which they could give free 
and undisturbed expression to them in their worship. 

Whilst this active work was going on in Manchester, 
London was also bestirring itself. Mr. Robert Hind- 
marsh, who may be called the founder of the external 
organization, sought in 1783, by the very modern device 
of a newspaper advertisement, to bring together all who 
were acquainted with Swedenborg that they might hold 
meetings for the extension of their personal knowledge 
of the writings, and the consideration of how to make 
them better known to the world. In answer to this 


258 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


public announcement five persons met at the Queen’s 
Arms Tavern, St. Paul’s Churchyard, London, on Dec. 
5, 1783, at 5:00 o’clock, where they engaged a private 
room, drank tea together, and planned future meetings. 
They were all, as might be expected, men of strongly 
marked character, both as to will and intellect. They 
decided to hold a weekly meeting to advertise it and 
invite all interested to attend. They met in New Court, 
and took the name of “The Theosophical Society.” 
although in quite a different sense from what would be 
now attached to a society socalled. Among those who 
joined the society were the Rev. J. Gilpin Fletcher, of 
Madeley’s curate; John Flaxman, the sculptor; William 
Sharpe, the engraver; Barthelemon, the musical composer; 
Lieut. -General Rainsford, afterwards governor of Gibral- 
t ar. Whilst they considered it important to improve their 
own knowledge of the doctrines of the internal sense of 
Scripture, beyond that they held their main work to be 
to address the public, and especially the clergy. For 
this purpose the printing of the posthumous Latin works 
of Swedenborg, and of translations into English of his 
others was vigorously carried on. Nor was this done in 
a half-hearted fashion; the energy was not expended 
solely in producing them; they were thereafter sent 
throughout the globe. The early converts to Sweden- 
borgian doctrine were large-minded and large-hearted 
men. They included some of the most ardent advocates 
for the abolition of slavery, and that at a time when the 
Church by law established was united almost without 
exception in upholding it. The writings of the New 
Church were taken out to Botany Bay, with the first con- 
victs sent thither, by the medical officer attached to the 
vessel. Even Captain Cook, on sailing from Plymouth on 
his last voyage of discovery (1776), started from the 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


259 


house of the zealous New-Churchman William Cook- 
worthy, the personal acquaintance of Swedenborg and 
translator of his works. 

The Rev. J acob Duche, chaplain to the Female Orphan 
Asylum, St. George’s, London, who had adopted the doc 
trines, was well known in New- Church circles as a 
preacher of them; and consequently his public ministra- 
tions were attended by all favorably disposed, for whom 
it was convenient. He even held reading meetings at his 
house, which were occasionally attended by as many as 
thirty persons. 

As missionaries in the usual sense, we may refer to 
Messrs. J. W. Salmon and R. Mather, who in 1785 and 
1786 set out to proclaim the new truths in town and vil- 
lage throughout the Midlands of the North. They 
preached much in the open air, frequently in the market 
places, and were often listened to by as many as a thou- 
sand persons. They aroused great interest, and prepared 
the way for further efforts. The scattering of the seed 
thus proceeded actively by both the written and the 
spoken word. The Rev. Joseph Proud, afterwards one 
of the most distinguished ornaments of its ministry, was 
brought to an acceptance of the New-Church doctrines by 
their preaching. 

Among the followers of John Wesley, five prominent 
preachers became converts. This created much alarm 
until they were, as a gangrene on the Wesleyan body, 
only to be cured by desperate surgical treatment, cut off 
from connection. This, however, was perhaps only short- 
sighted policy; for though they were debarred from 
preaching the new doctrines in their accustomed circuits, 
it aided if it did not indeed suggest the course which 
was next taken, not indeed by all the members of the 
Theosophical Society, nor even a majority, but by a 


260 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


minority, who comprised all those who had been cut off 
from their previous religious connection on account of 
these views. 

They came to the conclusion to establish a Church, 
and to institute public worship, not only for their own 
satisfaction, but before the world. This step was con- 
sidered so momentous that the Rev. John Clowes came 
expressly to London to expostulate with them, and, if 
possible, induce them to alter their decision; but they 
had well weighed the point in the light of the teachings, 
and although they had heard him respectfully, he could 
not convince them that, as he contended, it was at that 
time inopportune. 

Those who had thus determined that it was their 
right and their duty to separate met together and 
formally organized themselves as the New Jerusalem 
Church on May 7, 1787; but until they could secure a 
suitable place of worship, they continued their week day 
and Sunday meetings at friends’ houses. They were 
soon fortunate enough to secure a church in Great East- 
cheap, which, after being fitted up for them, was opened 
for public worship, with specially prepared liturgy, by 
the Rev. James Hindmarsh and the Rev. Isaac Hawkins, 
on Jan. 27, 1788. Having attained to this point, the 
Theosophical Society, as though it served only a tempor- 
ary purpose, like the outer sheath of the leaf or flower of 
some plants, first shrank in numbers and importance, and 
then w T as discarded as having fulfilled its use. 

The organization which was then begun was consoli- 
dated and developed as time went on. Their own orders 
of ordination, baptism, the holy supper, etc., were pre- 
pared and adopted. A further step then suggested itself, 
and this was to call a General Conference of all the 
receivers which were known to exist throughout the 
country for mutual counsel and edification. This 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


281 


Conference was held in Great Eastcheap from April 13 to 
April 17, 1789, and was a most useful and enjoyable 
gathering. We learn something respecting the attend- 
ance there-at from the statement that from sixty to seventy 
dined together daily. Among the subjects dealt with were 
publications for the religious instruction of the young, 
and a recommendation of Sunday schools, the Sunday 
school itself being a product of the new age, the first 
having been formed in the year 1764. 

In the year following this first Conference, the first 
journal of the infant Church was started. It was called 
the New Jerusalem Magazine, and its first number bears 
the date of January, 1790. It did not last long, although 
it was very ably conducted. It was followed by others; 
sometimes two appeared together; sometimes, on the 
other hand, there was a long blank, and so it continued 
until 1812. Like an attempt to kindle a fire, which after 
some efforts which come to nought, is successful, so was 
it with the periodical literature of the New Church. In 
1812 The Intellectual Repository was begun, which has 
continued down to the present year, though under a 
change of name. Whilst this has regularly appeared, it 
has often had one, and sometimes two companions in the 
field. It has had its complements also in magazines for the 
young people, one of which — The Juvenile Magazine — 
has now been issued for over half a century. Later it 
has had weekly contemporaries, one of which — The Morn- 
ing Light — has now been issued for sixteen years. So 
that there continue to exist at the present time all the 
three forms of journalism which have commended theim 
selves in the past. 

A second conference assembled in 1790; in fact, sub- 
sequent to the first there were six held prior to 1815, 
since which they have met in an unbroken annual series. 
And from time to time, by the teaching of experience, by 


262 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


the needs shown from increasing numbers, the work of 
consolidation has been carried on, and every requirement 
of Church life provided for. The Liturgy, first prepared 
in 1828, was revised and extended in 1875. The Hymn 
Book, of which there were originally three private collec- 
tions in use, was provided for general use by a Conference 
Committee in 1823, and revised and enlarged in 1880. 
Conference was enrolled in the High Court of Chancery 
in 1822, and was incorporated under the Companies’ 
Acts in 1872. Many of the affiliated institutions have 
come into existence from the business brought before its 
annual sessions. 

It is impossible to dwell minutely upon its growth and 
development as a Church. The first church specially 
erected was one in Birmingham, which the Kev. Joseph 
Proud opened in June, 1791. Mr. Proud was a truly 
eloquent preacher, and made an extraordinary sensation 
here, and also later at Cross street, Hatton Garden, 
London. The Manchester friends, after deprecating 
separation in 1788, a few years later took the same step, 
erecting the well-known Peter Street Church, which was 
opened in 1793, and only passed out of use in 1888, 
when the Society was parted into two bodies, each of 
which seem already to be as large as the original Society. 
A Church was opened in Liverpool later in the same year, 
to whose pulpit the Kev. W. Hill was called soon after 
the opening. Occasionally, too, seed sown in a village 
has shown a vigor and power of growth which the generally 
more enlightened town has not displayed. This occurred 
at Accrington, where a Society was formed in 1802, which 
has long occupied the position of the largest Society in 
the New Church in Great Britain. 

About 1815 missionary work was the great subject 
before the Church. Previous to that, except by means 
of the press, and except in founding places of worship, 


PLANTING THE CHUKOH 


263 


which, however, were only in a secondary sense for the 
benefit of the inquirer and the stranger, work purely 
missionary had chiefly been undertaken by private per- 
sons. A Missionary Committee was appointed by the 
Conference in this year, and the Rev. J. Proud sent out 
on most successful journeys. This work was ably con- 
tinued for years by Rev. J. Bradley, Rev. R. Hindmarsh, 
Rev. S. Noble, Rev. W. Bruce, and others. Many per- 
sons were confirmed, many first heard of the new doc- 
trines, and many societies of varying promise were origi- 
nated during these journeys. The outcome of this Con- 
ference action was the formation of the Missionary and 
Tract Society in London in 1821, whose permanent com- 
mittee has since dealt with missionary work on behalf of 
the cause. The Manchester and Salford Missionary 
Society, founded in 1813, chiefly to provide missionary 
preachers to the smaller societies around Manchester, 
a few years ago assumed a wider field of labor and a 
wider name, as the North of England Missionary Society. 
At different times local missionary societies have been 
established in Yorkshire, in Scotland, in Birmingham, the 
West of England, and Lincolnshire. The year 1857 was 
the centenary of the existence of the New Church as a 
spiritual system, and in celebration of that fact a National 
Missionary Institution was founded and endowed, and 
with this, as a parent or general overseer, the other local 
missionary societies or committees have been more or less 
closely affiliated. 

The publication of the writings of Swedenborg was 
first undertaken by a few friends conjointly, though some- 
times by a single person, as there were wealthy men 
connected with the early Church and with the society 
which preceded it. But the lack of continuity, the want 
of system, the absence of plan in carrying on the work, 
suggested as the numbers increased, the establishment of 


264 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


a society to keep the whole of the works in print, to see 
to their circulation and distribution as occasion offered, 
and especially as offering a use to which all could con- 
tribute, whether living in town or country. This was 
done in 1812, when a capital sum of £407 was raised, 
a sum not equal to the annual income it now receives 
from interest alone. It has kept well in view the object 
for which it exists; and the variety of languages (fourteen 
in all) in which these writings can be had, shows the extent 
to which an interest in them has extended, and the assiduity 
there has been to provide them in additional tongues. 

Although these works are the kernel of all New- 
Church literature, the collateral books connected with 
New- Church doctrine have been growing all the time in 
extent and value. In fact no denomination of the same 
dimensions has a literature so rich and valuable, or one 
which has had so much influence on the religious thought 
of the time. Beginning with Clowes and Hindmarsh, 
some of whose works are complete armories of argument 
and information, writers of promise and fulfillment, too, 
have appeared in regular succession. An attack on the 
New Church, for instance, drew forth a reply which con- 
stitutes the most perfect apology which the New Church 
possesses. This was the Rev. S. Noble’s Appeal on 
behalf of the Writings of the New Church , which, 
divested of the temporal character of its first edition, has 
taken its place as a classic (first edition, 1826; twelfth 
edition, 1893). Spiritual simplicity distinguishes the 
writings of the Rev. O. P. Hiller. Correctness of style and 
clearness of interpretation those of the Rev. W. Bruce. 
Deep, scholarly inquiry the Rev. A. Clissold. Brilliance 
and cogency of application to present conditions, the 
Rev. John Hyde. A magnetic influence which touched 
all who met him personally is also felt in the writings of 
Dr. J. Bayley. A grasp of all the facts as a basis for 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


265 


liis conclusions is found in the logical method of theKev. 
Dr. Tafel. It is recorded of the Manchester Printing 
Society alone that, in the comparatively early period 
from 1780 to 1818, it circulated considerably over a quar- 
ter of a million of books and tracts. 

The wants of the organization which from time to 
time forced themselves upon the attention of the Church, 
also suggested new departures. Thus, as early as 1818, 
Societies began to multiply so rapidly that ministers 
adequately trained could not be provided for them. The 
consequence was a proposal to raise a literary fund for 
the education of young men for the ministry. When 
first suggested, it was regarded as impracticable. But it 
was not forgotten, its need was indeed more acutely felt, 
and in the end it was attained. In 1852 a college was 
founded, which, in addition to handsome buildings, has 
acquired an endowment of nearly £8,000. It is now 
able to provide well and adequately for the education of 
future ministers and missionary preachers. The Students’ 
Aid Fund, established in 1854, provides for the main- 
tenance during their years of study of all those whom 
Conference adopts as students for its ministry. 

Another want which made itself felt was that after 
being trained, ministers were often placed in small Socie- 
ties which could not adequately maintain them. Hence 
there was founded a Ministers’ Aid Fund in 1854, and 
as the conception grew, an Augmentation Fund in the 
year 1877. Another want was that ministers thus inade- 
quately maintained could not provide for old age and for 
their widows. Many who adopted the ministerial career 
in the past, and these by far the finest men of all, were 
actuated by love of the Church rather than a love of 
reward. The Pension Fund was founded to provide for 
such cases, and now the annual outgo is about £450. 

18 


266 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


Later still (1881) an Orphanage was established, the 
requirements of the Church and the philanthropic spirit 
of its members again suggesting it as a work which 
should be undertaken. 

The first centenary of the New Church as an external 
body was held by the Conference at Camden Road 
Church, London, August, 1883. The development, and 
the ratio of development, may be gathered from a com- 
parison of the number of societies, ministers, members, 
and the accumulated funds at the intervals since its 
formation of fifty, seventy-five and 100 years, with the 
same facts for 1893, the year now current. In 1833 
there were forty- four societies, nine ministers, 1,659 mem- 
bers, and an endowment of £4,627. In 1858 forty-eight 
societies, eighteen ministers, 2,954 members, endowment 
£5,733. In 1883, sixty-three societies, thirty-six min- 
isters, 5,409 members, endowment £58,019. Now in the 
year 1893, these stand as follows: — seventy-six societies, 
forty-two ministers, 6,157 members, endowment £68,241. 
It is necessary to mention that a number of small societies 
remain unconnected with Conference, and that the 
non-separating policy which the Rev. John Clowes repre- 
sented more than a century ago still holds its ground, 
but on the whole, those who are non -separatists now are, 
as a rule, such by the force of circumstances rather than 
deliberate principle. This class, and it is a very large 
one, cannot be estimated, but it forms one of the influ- 
ences which like leaven is helping to modify the public 
thought to a very large extent. 

As may have been gathered from what precedes, the 
constitution of the New Church is independent and con- 
gregational. The Conference may advise and counsel, 
it cannot compel the obedience of the Societies. This 
has permitted a freedom of development which has 
impressed a different character upon different portions 


PLANTING THE CHUROH 


267 


of the Church. The Church was also in the beginning 
characterized by an early apostolic fire, which has now 
become more tempered. The intensity of the opposition, 
the force of the persecution, at first brought out the 
qualities required to deal with them. For instance it 
carried on a long correspondence with the king of 
Prussia; it failed not to seize an opportunity to com- 
municate with the Bey of Algiers; it established free 
day-schools long before they were thought of by the 
state. But if it had the temperament of youth, it was 
subject also to something corresponding to its ailments. 
It was infested at various times by adventurers of various 
kinds — by Jesuits, for example, at one time; by spiritists 
at another; and such infesters were able sometimes to 
injure it, but seldom to do more than retard its growth. 
This has been on the whole slow but steady. Its present 
position may therefore be regarded as solid, and its 
further progress as certain. For it has not only grown 
in numbers and in wealth, its literature also has grown, 
its missionary efforts have grown, its influence on the 
general thought of the world has grown, and there has been 
a widening of its basis which has gone on concurrently 
with the deepening of its roots. 

Ill 

THE NEW CHURCH ON THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE 

BY THE REV. FEDOR GOERWITZ OF SWITZERLAND 

The New Church is being planted on earth by the 
reception of its heavenly doctrine, which is the true doc- 
trine from the Word, in the minds of men; and the means 
by which it is conveyed to human minds are the theo- 
logical writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, whom the Lord 
filled with His spirit to teach the doctrines of the New 


268 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


Church, through the Word, from Him, and who was able 
not only to receive them in his understanding, but also to 
make them known by the press. 

Since these writings were written and published in 
the Latin language, they were at first accessible to men 
of learning only, and to bring them within the reach of 
wider circles their translation and publication in modern 
languages was necessary as the next step required for the 
planting of the New Church in Europe. Under the 
Divine Providence of the Lord, this work has been going 
on ever since these writings were given to the world. At 
this day the theological works of Swedenborg are pub- 
lished completely in the English, French and German 
languages; considerable portions of them in Swedish, 
Danish and Italian; some works in Dutch, Polish, Ice- 
landic and Welsh, and extracts in Spanish and Russian; 
two works (Heaven and Hell and the Doctrine of Charity) 
are in course of publication in one of the Hindu dialects 
and the same works are in course of translation into 
Arabic. 

As early as 1782 and 1783, societies for the transla- 
tion and publication of Swedenborg’s Theological Works 
•were formed in England; and this, under the Divine 
Providence of the Lord, led to the establishment of New- 
Church worship, to the creation of a New-Church 
ministry, and to the formation of an organized body of 
the New Church in that country, and shortly after in the 
United States of America. 

On the Continent of Europe the establishment of New- 
Church organization has been considerably retarded by 
the want of religious liberty and of political freedom. 
Under the Divine Providence of the Lord, these hind- 
rances have, however, been more and more removed, and 
to day religious liberty is recognized by law in most of 
the European countries. New-Church organizations now 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


269 


exist, or are in the process of formation in various Euro- 
pean countries, and I will give a short sketch of them in 
the following order: First, the Church in Scandinavia 
(Sweden, Norway and Denmark); second, in the German 
countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland); third, in 
France; fourth, in Italy. 

In Sweden, Swedenborg’s native country, his works 
had already, during his lift time, found ardent admirers 
and adherents, foremost amongst whom stands Dr. G. A. 
Beyer,*- that faithful defender and thorough student of 
the heavenly doctrines, whose name will forever remain 
endeared to the Church. That the interest in the writings 
remained unabated in Sweden for quite a number of 
years, is proved by the formation of the Philanthropic 
Exegetic Society, which was formed in 1786, by C. F. 
Norclenskiold, after his return from England, where he 
stayed three years. This society, the object of which 
was to publish the writings of Swedenborg in the Swedish 
language, and to collect documents respecting him, counted 
200 members, amongst them men of learning and high 
social position, also outside of Sweden. It existed how- 
ever, only a few years. Alchemy and mesmerism, favored 
by some of the leaders, found their way into the society, 
and thus led to its dissolution in 1789. It was succeeded 
in 1796, by the society called “Pro fide et charitate,” 
which also had for its aim the spreading of the theo- 
logical writings of Swedenborg. This society existed 
until 1820, when it gradually decreased and died out. 
The Swedish translations which were printed at that time, 
comprised the True Christian Religion; the New Jeru- 
salem and its Heavenly Doctrine; Brief Exposition; 
Doctrines of the Lord and of the Sacred Scriptures; 
Divine Love and Wisdom; Intercourse between Soul and 
Body; and an extract from x^pocalypse explained; they 
were mostly published at Copenhagen, Denmark, as the 


270 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


stringent press laws of Sweden prevented their being 
printed there; for a time the works of Swedenborg and 
of his followers were proscribed and the receivers of the 
writings were either fined or deprived of office. 

In 1866, when religious liberty had made greater 
progress, also in Sweden, the cause of the New Church 
was again taken up. A small number of persons (15) 
held a meeting on September 25th, and chose a Board of 
Managers. A report of this meeting was sent to the 
President of the American Convention, — Rev. Thos. 
Worcester. In 1877, a number of meetings took place in 
Stockholm, in the Hotel du Nord, at which the Rev. A. 
T. Boyesen, then pastor of a New- Church Congregation 
at Copenhagen, was present, and spoke. By these meet- 
ings New Church services were instituted, and have been 
kept up regularly since. In 1875, the society of the 
“ Confessors of the New Church ” was formed in Stock- 
holm, and in 1877, the Rev. A. T. Boyesen, who until 
then had visited Stockholm only at intervals, removed to 
that city to take charge of the society. 

A few years later, a New-Church society was formed 
in Gottenburg, which chose and ordained the Rev. C. J. 
N. Manby $s its pastor, and lately, a second New-Church 
society has been formed in Stockholm, under the pastoral 
charge of the Rev. A. Bjorck, a graduate of the New- 
Church Theological School at Cambridge. So three New- 
Church ministers are now active in Sweden; lectures have 
been delivered by them in seventy out of the ninety-seven 
towns of Sweden; New-Church Monthlies are being pub- 
lished in Stockholm and in Gottenburg. The translation 
and publication of the writings in the Swedish language 
is progressing in a satisfactory manner. 

In Denmark, one of the first persons who favored 
the cause of the New Church was General Tuxen, 
inspector-general of customs at Elsinore, a member of the 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


271 


Philanthropic Exegetic Society of Stockholm. The first 
Danish translation of one of Swedenborg’s works did not, 
however, appear until 1856, when the doctrine of the 
Lord was translated and published by Baron Dirckinck 
Holmfeld. This was followed in 1860-61 by the Doct- 
rines of the Sacred Scriptures, of Life and Faith, and in 
1870 by the Brief Exposition. The Baron did not, how- 
ever, favor the formation of a New-Church organization. 
In 1868, a reading circle was formed in Copenhagen by 
Miss Julia Conring, a highly gifted lady, born of Danish 
parents in Holstein, who had become acquainted with the 
heavenly doctrines through correspondence with Dr. 
Immanuel Tafel of Tubingen. In 1870 Mr. W. Winslow, 
who at that time lived in Chicago, encouraged Mr. A. T. 
Boyesen, a Norwegian by birth, to go to Copenhagen and 
found a New-Church society there. Mr. Boyesen assented, 
and, after having been ordained in England, he com- 
menced work in Copenhagen in the fall of 1871. He 
remained pastor of the society founded by him until 1877, 
when he removed to Stockholm. In 1878, Mr. W. Wins- 
low, who had just returned to his native country from 
America, became minister of the society. Under the 
ministry of Mr. Boyesen and Mr. Winslow, the Church in 
Denmark has made satisfactory progress. Besides the 
above mentioned works, translated by Baron Dirckinck 
Holmfeld, Heaven and Hell, Divine Love and Wisdom, 
The Last Judgment, The New Jerusalem and its Heav- 
enly Doctrine and a part of the True Christian Religion 
have been translated into Danish. Heaven and Hell by 
Mr. Winslow, the others by Mr. Boyesen; and a New- 
Church Monthly is being published by Mr. Winslow in 
the Danish language. 

In Norway there is as yet no New-Church organiza- 
tion; in 1891 and 1892, the Rev. Mr. Manby delivered 
some lectures in Christiania, arid Trondhjem, In 1892 


272 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


also, the Rev. Mr. Boyesen visited the latter place, and 
during a stay of about a month gave a series of lectures 
there. 

The first translation into German of any part of the 
writings were made by Prelate Oetinger of Wtirtemberg, 
who became acquainted with Swedenborg’s works in 
1762, and who, in 1765, published a translation of the 
Memorable Relations contained in Yol. 1, of the Arcana 
Ccelestia. At the request of the Wtirtemberg consistory, 
the whole edition was confiscated, and Oetitnger was 
reprimanded. In 1770 he published, without his name, 
a translation of “ Earths in the Universe,” and transla- 
tions of other works, made by various translators, soon 
followed: The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doc- 
trine, in 1772; Heaven and Hell, in 1775; Intercourse 
Between Soul and Body, in 1776; Brief Exposition, in 
1786. Of the True Christian Religion a German edition 
appeared in 1784 at Altenburg, and another in 1795 
at Basel. In 1813, a copy of the Basel edition of the 
True Christian Religion came into the hands of Immanuel 
Tafel, then a youth of 17. The Doctrine of the 
Trinity made a deep impression on him, and this led to 
his subsequent thorough study of the whole of Sweden- 
borg’s works, and to his great and comprehensive labors 
for the Church, which he commenced in 1821, and con- 
tinued until his death in 1863. By his Latin editions 
of a considerable portion of Swedenborg’s works, this 
eminent scholar (Professor of Philosophy and Librarian 
of the University of Tubingen) has performed a lasting 
use for the Church at large. For the German Church 
he has done an eminent service by his works in defense 
of the New-Church doctrines, and by the translation and 
publication of a great part of the writings. After his 
death this was continued, first by a small printing 
society formed by friends of the cause in Germany and 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


273 


Switzerland, then by Mr. Theodore Miillensiefen, and 
afterward by Mr. J. T. Mittnacht. At this day all the 
theological works of Swedenborg are published in the 
German language; the Spiritual Diary is translated, but 
not yet published. 

In 1848 a “Union of the New Church in Germany 
and Switzerland” was formed by Immanuel Tafel, number- 
ing about one hundred members. The main object of 
this Union was, the furtherance of the publication of 
Swedenborg’s writings in the German language. Quar- 
terly meetings were also held by this Union, for a 
number of years, at or near Stuttgart, at which lectures 
on the Doctrines were held by Immanuel Tafel; he also 
(in 1850), at the request of seven members, drew up a 
plan for a church organization, giving a sketch of the 
constitutions of the Church in England and in America, 
and recommending their adoption wherever practicable, 
yet no organization was formed at that time. 

The plan of an organization was most energetically 
taken up again, by Mr. T. G. Mittnacht, who in 1870, 
returned from America to Germany, his native country, 
and who in 1872, together with Dr. Rudolph Tafel of 
London, commenced the publication of a New- Church 
Journal, which he continued from 1875 to 1883, under 
his sole editorship. By means of this periodical and the 
active efforts of Mr. Mittnacht, those interested in the 
doctrines in Germany, Switzerland and Austria were 
brought into communication with each other, and as a 
result the Swiss Union of the New Church was formed 
in 1875, in Switzerland, and the German New-Church 
Society in 1876, in Germany. The German New-Church 
Society has a few years since (1891) been transformed 
into the German Swedenborg Society, and is now con- 
tinuing the publication and sale of Swedenborg’s writings. 
The Swiss New-Church Union on the other hand, has 


274 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


been more and more developed into an organized body of 
the New Church. Divine Service is held in Zurich, in 
Berne, and in several places in Eastern Switzerland. The 
Union has also a depot for the sale of New-Church books 
at Zurich, and holds annual meetings in that city. The 
President and Pastor is the Rev. Fedor Goerwitz, who in 
1879, was ordained in New York, and is a minister of 
the American Convention. The New-Church Periodical, 
which in 1872, was originally issued as a weekly, and 
later, twice a month, is being continued by him as a 
monthly, since 1884. He also has pastoral charge of a 
small New-Church Society in Vienna, Austria, which he 
visits annually. In Vienna, the late Rev. Herman Peisker, 
who was ordained in 1871 in England, worked for several 
years (1872 to 1880). 

In Buda-Pesth (Hungary), there is a small circle of 
receivers of the Doctrines keeping up regular Sunday 
worship in the German language. Two collateral works, 
“Letters to a Man of the World ” and “ Skepticism and 
Revelation” have been translated into Hungarian, but 
none, as yet, of Swedenborg’s works. 

In France the writings of the New Church early 
found adherents and defenders amongst men of rank and 
learning, among whom may be named the Marquis 
Thome, and the Librarian Moet, who both were mem- 
bers of the Philanthropic Exegetic Society of Stockholm. 
The first work translated into French was Heaven and 
Hell, which was translated (very incorrectly, however,) 
and published by Abbe Pernety in 1792. Soon after 
French translation of several of the smaller works 


appeared in London, — in 1782, the New Jerusalem and 
its Heavenly Doctrine; in 1785, Intercourse between 
Soul and Body; and in 1787, the Last Judgment, the 
Doctrine of the Lord and the Doctrine of Life. A com- 
plete translation of all the theological works of Swedenborg 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


275 


except the Apocalypse Explained, was made by Mr. 
T. P. Moet of Versailles, who commenced this work in 
1786. These translations remained, however, in manu- 
script until about 1820, when Mr. John Augustus Tulk 
of London acquired the manuscript from the widow of 
Mr. Moet (who had died in 1804), and, subsequently, 
had a portion of them published at his own expense. 

About 1838 J. F. E. Le Boys des Guays commenced 
the publication of his most excellent and accurate transla- 
tions of the writings, beginning with the Arcana Ccelestia, 
which has not yet been published from the Moet manu- 
scripts. He translated and published all the theological 
works of Swedenborg, including the Apocalypse 
Explained, — the expense being covered mostly by con- 
tributions; considerable amounts were contributed by 
Count de Lascases (who bequeathed 70,000 francs in his 
last will for this purpose), and by Mr. de Chazal of 
Mauritius. To the Church at large, Le Boys des Guays 
has rendered eminent service by his General Index of 
passages from the Word quoted in Swedenborg’s writings, 
and by his Latin editions of parts of the Sacred Script- 
ures with explanations of the spiritual sense, in which 
work he was assisted by his learned friend, Mr. Aug. 
Harl6 of Paris. To Le Boys des Guays belongs also the 
merit of having worked earnestly and openly for an 
organization of the New Church, and of having com- 
menced public New- Church worship in France. Several 
talented French authors have written works presenting 
the Doctrines of the New Church, without, however, 
mentioning Swedenborg’s name, and thus without refer- 
ring to their source. Le Boys des Guays, however, in 
his magazine “ La Nouvelle Jerusalem, Revue Religeuse 
et Scientifique, ” which he commenced in 1838, and con- 
tinued to publish until 1848, openly unfolded the banner 
of the New Church. He instituted public New- Church 


276 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


worship at his house in St. Amand on November 18, 
1837. It was continued there until his death in 1864, 
and for a number of years afterwards. The large stock 
of books left by Le Boys des Guays is at present in the 
possession of the Society Swedenborgienne of Paris, of 
which Mr. Charles Human n is president. Mr. Humann is 
also the leader of a New- Church Society in that city, 
which some years ago ordained him as its minister. 

In 1883 a New-Church Temple, situated on the Rue 
Thouin, in the neighborhood of the Pantheon, was dedi- 
cated to the worship of the Lord God J esus Christ. Regular 
Sunday worship is held there. A New-Church book- 
room in charge of the Soci6t6 Swedenborgienne is con- 
nected with this building. From manuscripts left by Le 
Boys des Guays and his co-laborer Harle, the publication 
of Swedenborg’s Latin translations of parts of the Word, 
with explanations of the Spiritual sense is being continued 
by Mr. Edward Chevrier of Paris. Since October last, a 
New Church Monthly entitled “L’Eglise de V Avenir” is 
being published by Mr. Humann, in conjunction with the 
Decembre-Alonnier. 

In Italy, as everywhere, the writings needed first to 
be translated into the language of the country, and this 
work is being done with great energy and success by Mr. 
Loreto Scocia. Sig. Scocia, who grew up a Catholic, 
thereafter became a convert to the Protestant Religion 
through the instrumentality of a Methodist Minister 
while on a visit to the Island of Corsica, and acted as a 
missionary of that denomination for seven years. In 
1868 he resigned the position and was for a short time 
Professor of Languages in Lausanne, Switzerland; here 
he became acquainted with the doctrines of the New 
Church, and an ardent desire to make them known to his 
countrymen arose in his mind. Through the agency of 
the Rev. Mr. Ford of Florence, an appeal for aid was 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


277 


made to the New Church in Great Britain and America; 
in 1870 Sig. Scocia took up his abode in Turin, and com- 
menced to translate the writings into Italian. He also 
gave some lectures and established a monthly paper, 
“La Nuova Epoca.” In 1878 Mr. Scocia removed to 
Florence, where two or three English New-Church families 
were then residing. 

The following works have been so far translated and 
published in the Italian language: Heaven and Hell, 
Earths in the Universe, The New Jerusalem and its 
Heavenly Doctrine, Doctrine of Life, Divine Love and 
Wisdom, Divine Providence, Brief Exposition, Intercourse 
between Soul and Body, and the True Christian Religion. 
They have been distributed to many libraries and offered 
by circulars to the Catholic Clergy gratuitously. The 
scattered readers and receivers of the Doctrines in Italy 
and Sicily have been brought into communication with 
each other and by twenty-two of them Mr. Scocia has 
lately been elected as their minister. A New Church 
Liturgy in the Italian language has been issued by Mr. 
Scocia and services have recently been commenced in 
Florence. 

The New-Church organizations on the European conti- 
nent, as is shown by the preceding sketch, are beginnings 
only. Yet they are organizations of the New Church of the 
Lord God J esus Christ, and under His Divine Providence 
they will contribute to the fulfillment of the Divine promise 
that all people, nations and languages shall worship Him. 

We are taught (A. R., 587) that the falses of the 
former Church must first be removed before the truths of 
the New Church can be received. The removal of these 
falses, which all originate in the doctrine of three Divine 
persons, is obviously going on and progressing in the 
Protestant Church all around us; with their removal, 
however, also the acknowledgment of the Divinity of the 


278 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


Lord and of His Word, is more and more losing ground, 
and if the Lord’s Divinity be denied, the Christian Church 
expires. (T. C. R., 636.) 

Salvation from this danger can only come through 
the heavenly doctrines of the New Church, which replace 
the falses of the former Church by genuine truths from 
the Word. These truths are represented by the organiza- 
tions of the New Church, feeble as they may be in their 
beginnings, and we may confidently trust in the Lord 
that He will take them under His Divine Protection. 

IV 

THE NEW CHURCH IN AMERICA 

BY THE REV. WILLARD H. HINKLEY 

Every true Church must have a Divine origin. The 
truth itself, which is the foundation of the Church in the 
human mind, is from God. It descends from God out 
of heaven, and is the “ light that lighteneth every man 
that cometh into the world.” From the earliest times 
this light has shone forth. “ In the beginning was the 
Word and the Word was with God and the Word was 
God.” This is the Eternal Logos, the creative power of 
God. Man is simply a recipient of it and not the creator 
of it. It has descended from the highest to the lowest, 
and man has received it as the earth receives the seed 
that is planted in it. 

The Church, then, is “ the Bride, the Lamb’s wife,” 
the Mother of all the children of God, the repository of 
the truth; fruitful or barren, as the truth has become 
vivified by the spirit of the Divine love, or deadened by 
man’s own selfishness and evil. 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


279 


New dispensations of the Church are inaugurated 
by New Divine revelation. In His First Coming the Lord 
did not reveal the heavenly or spiritual meaning of His 
Word. He simply revealed Himself as the Word. His 
early followers had only a dim perception of His Divine 
character; the philosophy of Religion was unknown; and 
the spirit and life of His own words was known only in 
part. Having descended to the lowest and having over- 
come all evil and risen again, ascending up above all 
the heavens it was necessary that the steps by which He 
accomplished this work, or glorified His humanity and 
made it Divine, as He regenerates man and makes him 
spiritual, should be made known as they are delineated 
in His life. This required a new revelation, not a new 
word but a revelation of the doctrines and principles that 
underlie that Word which although Divine in itself was 
written in human or natural language, in figures and 
types which required to be unfolded or explained. This 
was the more necessary as the men of the first Christian 
Church fell into a state of naturalism and thence into 
error and evil, so that the primitive faith of Christianity 
became wholly obscured and a false one substituted. 
God was divided into three and the Lord into two; charity 
was separated from faith; belief in the reality of the future 
life grew very dim and the light of the Word was again 
obscured by the doctrines of men, formulated by Councils 
of the Church. 

The Lord, therefore, came again, not as before in per- 
son, but in the spirit and power of His Word; not only 
to execute a judgment, but to establish a New Church 
which should acknowledge and worship Him alone. He 
made known a system of doctrines and a religious phi- 
losophy through the instrumentality of a man whom he 
filled with His spirit, opening the interior degrees of his 
mind so that he understood the spiritual meaning of the 


280 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


Word and saw and heard things in Heaven, in Hell and 
in the intermediate state called the World of Spirits. 
His spiritual experiences unlike those of any other man, 
living before or since his day, enabled him to understand 
heavenly mysteries, especially the heavenly meaning of 
the Word, and to communicate them to the world by 
means of the press. This man was Emanuel Sweden- 
borg and his writings contain the truths of the New 
Church which have been planted in the minds of men 
and women now for more than a century. These writ 
ings in the Latin language were printed and published 
for the most part by Swedenborg himself, in Holland and 
England, and were sent by him to Clergymen of the 
Church of England and to public libraries. In this way 
and somewhat through the efforts of his London publisher 
who was instructed to circulate them gratuitously, they 
fell into the hands of a few men in England who received 
them and appreciated them, believing them to have come 
from a Divine source. Some also in Sweden, France 
and Germany received them before the death of Sweden- 
borg in 1772. 

It will be seen from these statements that unlike the 
Gospel, the truths of the New Church were made known 
at first principally by means of the press, and not solely 
nor indeed hardly at all by the living voice. In the days 
of the apostles the art of printing was unknown and but 
few manuscripts were circulated. The Gospel was 
preached, not printed. But in the very beginning of 
the New Dispensation, in Swedenborg’s own time soon 
after he had written his books of heavenly truths, they 
were printed and circulated. He never preached nor 
founded a sect or a Church. Is not the fact that these 
new doctrines were received by educated and intelligent 
men, especially by Clergymen, like Hartley and Clowes 
of the Church of England, without persuasion or entreaty, 


PLANTING THE CHtfKCH 


281 


one of the best evidences of their Divinely given char- 
acter ? These evidences, produced by the silent and power- 
ful influence of the truth itself, have multiplied unto 
this day. 

From England the seeds were wafted across the seas 
to America. No apostle was sent to proclaim them; one 
man, J ames Glen of London, a Scotchman by birth, came 
to this country about the year 1784 and delivered lectures 
on the new doctrines in Philadelphia and Boston. He 
was not an ordained Minister but a simple layman moved 
by a love for these new truths and a desire to make them 
known to others. It does not appear that these lectures 
gained any converts although the attention of a few was 
arrested. They were, according to advertisement, 
intended to explain the law of correspondence of natural 
things with spiritual by which the Holy Scriptures are 
written. Doubtless they were regarded as visionary and 
were unsuited to the apprehension of his hearers. The 
advertisement of them was headed “For the Senti- 
mentalists.” But James Glen was the instrument under 
the Divine Providence of introducing these truths to the 
minds of a few persons in Philadelphia by means of some 
of Swedenborg’s works which he sent to that city and 
which were disposed of at public sale, after his departure. 
By this means, Francis Bailey, the State printer of 
Pennsylvania, John Young, judge of one of the State 
courts, Miss Hetty Barclay and two or three others 
became firm believers of the new doctrines and communi- 
cated a knowledge of them to others. Mr. Bailey 
became very active in their promulgation — and soon 
communicated with the believers in England from whom 
he received some of the smaller works of Swedenborg 
and the early writings of the Rev. John Clowes in 
vindication and explanation of Swedenborg’s teachings. 

19 


282 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


About the same time, or somewhat later, Mr. Henry Fol- 
som, a bookseller of Boston, received some of the books 
from England. Mr. Joseph Roby, the earliest receiver 
of the Doctrines in Boston, is believed t) have received 
them from Mr. Glen. In 1787 Mr. Bailey printed “A 
Summary View of the Doctrine,” the first New-Church 
book published in America; and in 1789 he published the 
first volume of the “True Christian Religion.” Among 
others Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris were sub- 
scribers to it. 

Thus little by little and very slowly the seeds were 
sown on American soil, and began to take root. The 
truth gained power over old errors by its own evidence. 
No preacher in the New World had yet attempted to 
teach them from a pulpit. Men and women gathered 
together in small circles, in private, and read these 
wonderful revelatioDS and believed them, and spoke of 
them to their neighbors and friends. It is possible that 
the writings of Swedenborg were received in America by 
others than those few persons in Philadelphia, and at an 
earlier date. It has been said that Parson Schlatter, the 
founder of the early Lutheran missions in Pennsylvania, 
Maryland and Virginia, had the original Latin editions 
in his library and read them. It was common in those 
days for professional and literary men to have their 
booksellers in London supply them regularly with new 
publications. From Philadelphia the new truths spread 
to Baltimore and across the Alleghanies. 

From the year 1784 to 1794, a number of prominent 
men in this country became earnest advocates of them, 
and the new believers were occasionally visited by dis- 
tinguished foreigners. Among the latter were Col. Vahn 
Rohr, by birth a Swede, who had seen Swedenborg and 
knew his family; Mr. Clialmer, a Danish gentleman; a 
Frenchman named Bayard and Baron Henry William 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


283 


Yon Bulow, an eccentric Prussian. In Virginia, Col. 
Robert Carter of Nominy Hall, Westmoreland County, 
called Councilor Carter because he was, before the 
Revolution, one of the Council of the Royal Governor of 
Virginia, became an ardent believer and spent large sums 
of money in aid of the cause, especially in printing a 
Liturgy for the use of a Society organized in Baltimore 
in 1792, and in aiding Francis Bailey of Philadelphia, in 
his work. At this early date the doctrines of the New 
Church had found a foothold in Southwestern Virginia 
in the town of Abingdon where Robert Campbell and his 
brother William, the hero of the battle of King’s 
mountain, resided. In Eastern Virginia, Robert Carter 
and Thomas, Lord Fairfax, also a believer and after 
wards connected with the New-Church Society formed in 
Baltimore in 1798 were instrumental in making known 
the new doctrines. It is belived that Washington 
received some knowledge of them from Lord Fairfax. 

In Boston and vicinity the Rev. William Hill as early 
as 1795 began to make known the Doctrines. He was a 
Minister of the Church of England who had received the 
new truths from hearing the Rev. Jacob Duch£ preach 
them in England. The latter was the clergyman who 
made the first prayer in the Continental Congress. He 
returned to England by the advice of Washington as he 
did not sympathize with the idea of separation from the 
mother country, but afterwards came back to Philadelphia 
with his family. The Rev. Mr. Hill subsequently mar 
ried his daughter, Esther Duche. Mr. Hill was a good 
scholar and translated the work of Swedenborg called 
“ The Apocalypse Explained.” He was also instrumental 
in having several of Swedenborg’s smaller works printed 
in Boston. 

By this time, 1795, the new believers in Boston, Phila- 
delphia and Baltimore had become acquainted with each 


284 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


other and corresponded. The first society for worship 
was formed in the City of Baltimore in 1792, and the 
first New Church sermon was preached in the Court 
House in that city on Sunday, April 1st, in that year. 
But this society was afterward dissolved and the first 
permanent Church was organized in Baltimore in 1798, 
when Ralph Mather and John Hargrove, the latter an 
ex-minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, were 
ordained by the laying on of hands of ten laymen, repre- 
senting the Church. This was the beginning of the 
organized New Church in America, if we except a small 
society formed in Halifax, N. S-, in 1791, which had a 
short existence. Societies or Churches were afterwards 
formed in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, New York, Boston and 
other places. By their means a Ministry was established. 
The General Convention of the New Church in the United 
States which meets annually was formed in 1817 in Phila- 
delphia. State Associations and Boards or Societies for 
publishing Swedenborg’s writings and collateral works 
were formed many years later. 

In presenting this brief sketch of the planting of the 
New Church in America we must not omit the fact that 
many of those who first received the truths of the New 
Church did not believe in a separate organization of the 
New Chnrch distinct from the Old; and there are many 
who still hold this view. Experience has taught us, how- 
ever, that these truths would not have been published in 
the world without organized effort. Without sowers the 
seed could not have been sown, nor could the human mind 
receive these truths freely and fully until it was liberated 
in some degree from old errors. Freedom to worship 
the Lord in His Divine Humanity could not be given 
where ihe New Church was not acknowledged. This is 
measurably the case to-day, but 'as civil freedom has 
advanced in this noble nation of ours, religious freedom 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


285 


has prevailed more and more, until now it is possible for 
men to receive and openly acknowledge the doctrines 
taught by Swedenborg without incurring obloquy or con- 
tempt. Ministers of the Gospel of a’l denominations 
throughout the United States, — many of whom have 
received some of Swedenborg’s works through the noble 
gift of the late L. C. Jungerich of Philadelphia,- -now 
openly acknowledged their indebtedness to the writings 
of Swedenborg for new light which has enabled them to 
understand the Word and to explain it in their pulpits 
as they could not have done without this new revelation. 

The doctrine of the New Church cannot as yet be 
universally acknowledged. The woman is still in danger 
of being “carried away by the flood of water which the 
Dragon casts out of his mouth.” She is still in the 
wilderness. The New Church exists as yet in fullness 
only with a few. Because this doctrine has been revealed 
out of heaven by the Lord it can only be received by 
those who are prepared by inward change of thought 
and affection, by the removal of prejudices, by honest 
living and by seeking light from the Lord. The Holy 
City will descend and the Bride will be adorned for her 
Husband, and the glory will be revealed as men love the 
truth and obey it, and are thus united with the Lord and 
abide with Him forever. 


V 

THE NEW CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA 
BY THE REV. J. J. THORNTON 

The east of the Australian continent became known 
to £ke British in 1771. This was before the death of 
Swedenborg, which took place in London in the following 
year. Three years previously, between 14th and 26th 


286 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


June, 1768, Captain Cook, then about to undertake the 
now celebrated voyage which brought him to Australian 
shores in the bark “ Endeavor,” was a guest in the 
house of William Cookworthy, the Quaker, at Plymouth, 
Devon. Curiously enough, Cookworthy had already 
completed and published in the same city his first English 
translation of Swedenborg’s “ Doctrine of Life.” In con- 
junction with the Rev. Thomas Hartley, the same worthy 
Friend, who was well known among the literati of south- 
ern England, subsequently translated “ Heaven and Hell,” 
and personally visited Swedenborg in London before his 
death. That Captain Cook should then have been the 
guest of so ardent and practical an admirer of Sweden- 
borg’s works, especially when another distinguished 
Swede, Dr. Solander, joined the company, is at least 
remarkable. Swedenborg was at that time a topic of 
conversation among the scientific and literary men of 
Europe, and therefore there would be nothing difficult 
in affirming that Cookworthy might have introduced his 
own translation of Swedenborg’s tractate to Captain 
Cook, whose natural reserve and robustness covered 
depths of character not usually revealed. Sir Joseph 
Banks was another guest at the same house. That these 
celebrated discoverers should have started on their mem- 
orable voyage to the shores of the then unknown Aus- 
tralia from the home of an active propagator of Sweden- 
borgian literature at least connects the discovery and first 
settlement of the great southern colonies with the 
practical beginnings of the New Church in England, 
and illustrates the statement that, in respect to the time 
of its unveiling, eastern Australia is emphatically the 
land of the New Dispensation. Indeed, it is at least 
possible that some spiritual thoughts, directly originating 
with Swedenborg’s works, may have traveled in the 
bark “ Endeavor,” and reached Australia with the 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


287 


gallant company who, after circumnavigating New 
Zealand, first sighted the beautiful coasts of New South 
Wales in 1770. 

The colonization of Australia having commenced 
after the New Church had begun its activities in Eng- 
land, there naturally flowed forth in the ordinary stream 
of immigration a few who had received into good hearts 
the seed of holy truth taken from the granary of the New 
Jerusalem; and, so far as the Divine Love and Wisdom 
of the only Lord, the Savior Jesus Christ, dwelt in them 
and among their fellow colonists, “the kingdom of 
heaven, which is as a grain of mustard seed,” was 
planted in their midst. Some of these men and women 
might be mentioned by name, but the limit of time for- 
bids. It is sufficient to say that avowed New -Churchmen 
could occasionally be found among distinguished persons 
who filled the highest positions in the Australian Com- 
monwealth while yet in its infancy and who were leaders 
in important works under the Southern Cross. Among 
the very humblest, on the other hand, were exemplary 
New-Churchmen. For example, in 1833 a freeman, set- 
tling near Botany Bay, began in his own house the wor- 
ship of the Lord Jesus as the only God, acknowledging 
Him to be Jehovah in His Divine Human. By a faithful 
and modest life he diffused the pure spirit of his Relig- 
ion, and may be said to have erected in his own cottage- 
home an altar to “the Visible God in Whom is the 
Invisible,” which remained for fifty years a constant 
witness in the sight of heaven to an Australian acknowl- 
edgment of the Second Advent and the glorious reign of 
the Lord God Jesus Christ. 

Thero were others of all ranks who acted similarly 
in South Australia* Victoria and Queensland, and no one 
will ever be able to trace the silent and beneficent cur- 
rents of distinctive New-Church teaching that, from 


288 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


earliest times have continued to penetrate the extending 
settlements of Australasia. It must indeed be acknowl- 
edged with regret that there have been some possessed of 
the heavenly treasure who would not sustain the trials 
of isolation and ridicule, or the temptations to worldly 
aggrandizement which at times abounded. These did 
forsake the Church of the New Jerusalem. But they 
were exceptions. Scattered abroad, far from the great 
centers of population, are to be found men and women 
true to the Divine Light, who often read the Holy 
Scriptures and meditate well on the Heavenly Doctrine 
drawn therefrom by the Lord Himself, and revealed in 
Swedenborg’s writings. Such persons can also be found 
in the “bush-homes” of Tasmania and New Zealand, 
Better than wealth or pleasure is a pure marriage rela- 
tion, a sanctified home, persevering industry and true 
religion to these brave and faithful souls. For years 
uncared for by any human agency, unencouraged by the 
fellowship of brethren and unaided by the ministrations 
of pastors able to counsel and teach them, they have, 
nevertheless, obtained for the New Church a secure foot- 
ing in the land of their adoption! Their number is only 
known to the Lord. In Victoria from the extreme East 
to the utmost West; in New South Wales from the Mur- 
ray to the Northern border; and in the vast regions of 
Queensland and South Australia there are these thinly 
scattered New- Church homes. And, so far as population 
has extended, the same is true of Western Australia. 

No agencies have hitherto proved more helpful to the 
New Church in Australia than the English printing and 
tract societies of London and Manchester. Latterly, the 
assistance of the American Societies has also been grate- 
fully enjoyed. The first work done was that of the silent 
mission, “a still small voice” in which the Lord was (I 
Kings xix: 12). That voice is being mentally heard 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


289 


to-day, and is surely extending its sphere in the minds of 
the Lord’s children. It finds its way into the great 
religious organizations now operating in the colonies, 
exercises among them a distinct influence, which though 
continually contradicted and opposed, repeats its mes- 
sages and questions. Not unfrequently it finds expres- 
sion in the pulpits of the historic Churches. It will be 
heard more clearly as time goes on. The circulation 
and actual reading of the literature of the New Church 
is advancing steadily in Australasia. 

Between the years 1842 and 1865, small groups of 
New- Church people began to gather, meeting in houses, 
but rarely attracting public attention in any locality. 
These gained a few adherents to the new doctrines, but 
very slowly. Two groups, unknown to each other, some- 
times met simultaneously. This was the first gentle wave 
of unification among a scattered people. Their faith 
itself — so different on all points from that commonly pre- 
vailing — drew them together, if indeed they knew each 
other. The forming of small societies first began to be 
possible in the large cities. Such Societies were formed 
at Adelaide in 1844; at Melbourne in 1854; at Sydney in 
1854, and at Brisbane in 1865. Hitherto all these have 
had a struggling and difficult career. One of the four 
entirely collapsed three or four times before it obtained 
its present permanent footing. Without exception, all 
have undergone severe trials; and to this day they are not 
acknowledged by those whose doctrines rest on natural- 
istic or materialistic interpretations of Scripture and on 
the historic creeds. Nevertheless they have ardently 
striven, and do strive, mutually to minister to each other’s 
needs. A second Victorian congregation of the New 
Church began to be formed at Rodborough, a hundred 
miles from Melbourne in 1878. In New Zealand the 
early experience of the New Church made similar 


290 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


demands on the patience and self-sacrifice of its sons and 
daughters. A Society existed at Christ Church, in the 
South Island, from 1865 to 1868, which, having no one 
capable of presenting the doctrines of the New Church, 
fell into the hands of a religious adventurer, by whom it 
was wrecked. In that city a few true-hearted, though 
scattered, adherents await the advent of some capable 
New-Churchman under whose leadership they may again 
rally. At Auckland, in the North Island, a Society was 
projected in 1879 and actually formed in 1883. It has 
become an active and permanent agency in New Zealand. 

The Societies in Australia have enjoyed the services 
of three of their own ordained Ministers, and those of 
probably thirty laymen, who have acted with admirable 
devotion as Leaders or Readers, doing a large part of the 
Church’s work. These latter have rendered very im- 
portant and valuable service. One of them, a Physician 
of New South Wales, was distinguished as an extensive 
author and poet; others have proved powerful exponents 
or effective missionary preachers. In early years Aus- 
tralian Societies appealed repeatedly, but in vain, to the 
New Church in England to send them Ministers. In 
January, 1861, a letter was addressed to London offering 
£200 as an evidence of earnestness and asking for a visit 
from “an ordained Minister.” Even on these terms no 
response was obtainable. The first English Minister 
went out in 1877. He was charged with special responsi- 
bilities relating to the sacred office, and was publicly 
invested therewith at London in the same year, under 
the auspices of the General Conference of the New 
Church. One Minister in Australia has voluntarily 
labored without stipend throughout his entire pastorate. 
Another has ministered during lengthy intervals under 
the same disadvantageous conditions. All who have en- 
engaged in the work have done so with much self-sacrifice. 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


291 


There are now six congregations of the New Church 
in Australasia regularly celebrating the public worship 
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Each of these has a Sabbath 
School and a Free Lending Library of New-Church 
Literature. To facilitate their work five Societies have 
erected places of worship. That these are all small may 
appear from the fact that their total seating capacity 
does not exceed 700. The buildings at Adelaide, South 
Australia, and Rodborough, Victoria, are both substantial 
stone structures. The Church at Melbourne is stuccoed 
with stone foundations, and stands on a lot of land large 
enough to contain a building three times the size of the 
present one. The Brisbane structure is of wood, and in 
front of it stands a house owned by the Society. Three 
of these are in central and commanding sites in great 
cities. The Sydney Society is making preparations to 
erect a House of Worship and have extensive funds both 
in possession and in prospect. The Auckland Society 
have a Hall formed out of two attached two-storied 
dwellings, in Pompallier Terrace, Ponsonby. 

In 1880 the Australian Societies, recognizing their 
essential spiritual unity, resolved to render this unity 
actual by practical and avowed association. In the 
strength of mutual love, they refused to view each other 
as separate and isolated. All possible principles and 
aims, doctrines and interpretations, effects and uses, 
springing from the love and worship of the only Lord, 
conspire to one grand and whole-souled argument in 
favor of such unity in the New Church. 

Though the two nearest Societies were five hundred 
miles apart and traveling was then both difficult and 
costly, two Ministers and four Representatives, accom- 
panied by thirty-five sympathetic New-Church people, 
attended the first “Australasian Conference of the New 
Church,” held on the Eastern Hill, Melbourne, on the 


292 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


5th of February, 1881. Succeeding meetings were held 
in Sydney, 1883; Adelaide, 1887; and Melbourne 1889. 
It is intended to hold the next in Brisbane. 

This Association was formed with the sanction and 
authority of all the Societies known to exist in Australa- 
sia in 1881; and its members in their General Confer- 
ences have performed several important services. At the 
beginning they made a few simple and fundamental affir- 
mations which gained publicity. First: They worshiped 
the Divine Human of Jehovah God, the Lord Jesus 
Christ, affirming that He is the only God of heaven and 
earth and that the Divine Trinity is in Him alone. They 
enumerated the thirty-four books of Holy Scripture (the 
five books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, I 
and II Kings, Psalms, all the prophets from Isaiah to 
Malachi, the four Gospels and the Revelation) which 
have the Internal Sense (A. C. 10,325), affirming these to 
be “The Word,” which is “Divine Truth proceeding from 
the Lord,” in its first origin purely Divine, and in its 
descent accommodated to angels and men. They affirmed 
that in His Second or spiritual Advent, the Lord “has 
come again into the world in the Divine Truth which is 
the Word, and that unless he had so come no flesh could 
be saved.” They acknowledged the Heavenly Doctrines 
of the New Jerusalem, revealed in the theological writ- 
ings of the Lord’s servant, Emanuel Swedenborg. They 
were especially emphatic in declaring that it is necessary 
a man should do the work of Repentance, which consists 
in self examination as to his motives, thoughts, actions 
and words, searching out the evils of his own heart; con- 
fessing them before the Lord; charging himself with 
them; desisting from them; holding them inwardly in 
aversion as sins against God; and living a new life accord- 
ing to the Divine Commandments. They declared that 
to be in the Lord’s New Church, “a man must also do 


PLANTING THE! CHURCH 


293 


good works as from himself, but by the Lord’s power, 
which he should implore.” They embraced the institu- 
tions of Baptism and the Holy Supper with new inter- 
pretations of their spiritual power and uses; the spiritual 
nature and Divine origin of Marriage; and the office and 
services of the Christian Ministry, exercised in the free- 
dom and power of the Divine Love, according to the 
spirit of the Divine Wisdom. 

Thus “The New Church in Australia” was firmly 
planted upon the acknowledgment of the only Lord God, 
whose Humanity is Divine; upon the holiness of His 
Divine Word; and upon the Heavenly Doctrines re- 
vealed therefrom at His Second Advent, for the restora- 
tion of pure and undefiled religion among the nations. 
These, in the hearts and lives of the people, are insepa- 
rable from the activities of the New Jerusalem, which is 
“the tabernacle of God with men.” 

Beyond declaring the standards already mentioned, 
and recognizing the institutions most essential to the 
Church, the Association of the New Church in Australia 
has as yet no ecclesiastical constitution. It has, how- 
ever, the Memorandum and Articles of Association. In 
1880 the Minister, who afterwards became the first Presi- 
dent, refused to propose any other constitu'.ion or rules 
than those afforded by the Divine Word and the writings 
of the Church, trusting the future of the organization to 
the formative power of the Lord’s own life, going forth 
into the uses of His Kingdom among the people. 

In addition to the important services rendered in the 
unification of the Church and in these valuable declara- 
tions, the members of the Association have also taken 
the following steps : 1. They have twice made provision 

for the ordination and licensing of Ministers and Lead- 
ers. 2. In 1883 they adopted measures to establish a 
representative Library of New-Church Literature, as one 


294 


NEW-CHURCfl CONGRESS 


step towards the future formation of a Theological 
School. 3. In 1887 they began the issue of a monthly 
journal called The New Age. which has rendered 
important service. 4. In 1889 they inaugurated a mis- 
sionary movement, and issued two addresses of an explan- 
atory character, one on the Divinity of the Only Lord, 
the other on Divine Inspiration. 

In 1888 the incorporation of the Association was car 
ried out under the Company’s Statute, 27 Victoria, No. 
190. The Memorandum and Articles of Association 
were drawn up with much foresight by a judge of the 
Supreme Court of Queensland, himself a member of the 
New Church. They were signed by seventeen repre- 
sentative men — two in Brisbane, four in Sydney, five in 
Adelaide, four in Melbourne and two in Rodborough. 

***** 

Among the simple good who look to the Lord Jesus 
Christ, there are many in Australia who are being 
ripened to receive a purer Christian doctrine and a new 
Christian life. It is becoming a task of great magnitude 
to give to these the heavenly truth revealed for them. 
The New Church in Australia needs the raising of funds 
for the ways and means of purchasing and distributing 
her literature. The letter of Holy Scriptures, imper- 
fectly presented and scattered broadcast by the Bible 
Society, is not sufficient. The means of spiritually under- 
standing and applying its holy Truths are absolutely 
necessary, and must be supplied. Australian New- 
Churchmen want to see a grand center for the manage- 
ment and direction of this work and training colleges 
for the efficient instruction and preparation of the work- 
ers, on whose generalship, earnestness and tact — under 
the love and .wisdom of the only Lord — much will 
depend. 


SLANTING THE CHURCH 


295 


The Lord is acting in and through “His people;” and 
the Divine Government among a people ruled by His 
Holy Spirit is not government for the glory of men or for 
man’s self-love, but for the glory of the Lord, which con- 
sists in the salvation and eternal happiness of all in the 
human race who willingly yield to the Divine Love of 
Him who “draws all men” unto Himself, that he may 
bless them. “They shall be His people, and God Himself 
shall be with them, and be their God.” (Rev. xxi: 3.) 
This state has begun in Australia and, although at pres- 
ent feeble and obscure, it is distinctly proper to the New 
Dispensation. It can really exist and be perpetuated 
among those who actually do the work of repentance 
and removo evils because they are sins against God. To 
such Jesus Christ is “the Alpha and the Omega; the 
Beginning and the End; the First and the Last.” (Rev. 
xxii:13.) 


VI 

THE PLANTING OF THE NEW CHURCH IN AFRICA 

BY THE REV. E. D. DANIELS 

The New Church is not a sect, but a new dispensa- 
tion, both as a life and as an ecclesiasticism, and in its 
universal sense includes all sincerely good persons. But 
not in its specific sense. There are many who are in it, but 
not of it. Christian fellowship is one thing, Church fellow- 
ship another. That we acknowledge persons as Christians 
at heart, and even unite with them in certain branches of 
Christian work, does not imply that they are members of 
the New Church, or that we invite them into our pulpits. 
The Church as a life from the heart is broader than the 
Church as an institution. 


296 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


The New Church as an institution must be established 
mainly in virgin soil, with some race who are in a state 
of simplicity, receptive of its influx from within, and 
of its doctrines from without. Such a race exists in 
Central Africa. The Doctrines of the New Church, which, 
though in Swedenborg’s language are not his invention, but 
are from the Lord, penetrate the veil of appearances, and 
give much and particular information concerning the 
internal state of the Africans from the quality of their 
life as it is manifested in the spiritual world. 

The different nations among them are distinguished 
according to their reception of heavenly light. The 
good occupy an elevated region, toward the middle of the 
Continent from Ethiopia, shaped somewhat like a rude 
crescent with wide center, and horns pointing eastward. 
From this region the nations decrease in goodness as 
they dwell nearer the coasts. Our doctrines treat chiefly 
of those who dwell in the interior, whom they call ‘‘the 
best of the Africans.” 

These are of a celestial disposition, supereminent in, 
this respect on earth, as the highest angels are in heaven, 
superior to others in interior judgment, and therefore, 
professing superior light. Hence their aptitude for receiv- 
ing truth whenever it is presented, and their innocent 
rejection of falsity. They do not allow strangers to pene- 
trate their country; but in a few instances Christian monks 
would have done so, and taught falsities; wherefore they 
were sent away. They are incapable of conceiving how 
Christians can profess their doctrines without living them. 
They do not believe it possible that any one can have an 
idea of God as a diffused principle; for they themselves 
more readily than others, worship Him as a Divine human 
being. 

The idea is implanted in them, that the Lord mani- 
fests himself as man, and hence they are more receptive 


planting the church 


297 


than others of truth. Ingenious wickedness they call 
stupidity. Their excellence is of heart, rather than of 
the intellect, for they desire to be called obedient, but 
not faithful, unless they receive the doctrines of faith, or 
as they say, are able to receive them. Thus they excel in 
meekness. Such is their quality as revealed in the spiritual 
world, and such is their real state in the natural world. 

Our contact with the negroes seems not to confirm 
this, for they were brought not from the better tribes of 
the interior, but from the coasts. But even they have 
traits which approach those just mentioned. They are 
affectionate, subordinate, sympathetic, and their evils are 
of a superficial kind, the love of pleasure rather than the 
deeper loves of self and the world. They are incapable 
of the deep cunning and concealment of the white men; 
and the reports of African explorers concerning the 
interior contain many confirmations of the New-Church 
teaching on this subject. 

The Doctrines of the New Church are being orally 
dictated to the Africans of the interior — not from with- 
out, but by influx from within. Spirits in the other life 
speak with certain ones in the interior of Africa, not in 
the manner of open communication known in spiritism, 
which is disorderly, but “their speech with them falls 
especially into their interior perception, and they per- 
ceive this influx, and so receive the revelations with 
illustrations.” These enlightened persons are the in- 
structors of the people. Hence the wiser among them 
think in a becoming manner of the Lord, and concerning 
the marriage relation. They know how many things 
concerning heaven and hell, of which Christians are 
ignorant, and, in a word, they know the truths of the 
New Church in themselves. Hence it is that they have 
Holy books, written in correspondences by enlightened 

20 


298 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


men, treating internally of the Lord, which books are to 
them the Word, but not like ours. This revelation has 
been expected by these people; and even the angels 
rejoiced when it was made, because through the Africans 
they could have access, as never before, for the regenera- 
tion of the human race. 

This revelation among the Africans radiates from a 
given center, but not to the coasts, because there it would 
come in contact with falsities from Christendom, and so 
become corrupted. To prevent this, the Divine Providence 
has kept the best of the Africans isolated for ages from 
the rest of the world by hitherto almost impassable bar- 
riers; but communication with them is now being 
opened, because the time is near for the New Church as 
revealed through the internals of the Africans, to come 
forth and meet the New Church, as revealed in doctrine 
from heaven. 

Judging from appearances, there is not much hope of 
the growth of the New Church in Central Africa. The 
cultivation of the people is more of the affections than of 
the intellect. They have no railroads, steam engines, 
factories or electrical machines. Their manners are 
simple, and their governments heaven-instituted and 
antique. They do many things, which, judged by the 
moral law, are wrong. But we are not to judge by 
appearances. The good Africans are in innocence and 
the main hope of the angels for the New Church is cen- 
tered in this “nation, far distant from the Christian World, 
and therefore removed from infestors, which nation is 
such that it is capable of receiving spiritual light.” This 
hope the angels communicate to the Africans. Hence it 
is that they have “hope of the propagation of this new 
gospel into the surrounding religions.” 

The grounds of this hope as we in Christendom know 
them, are the prophecies of the Words: “Princes shall 


Planting the church 


299 


come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her 
hands to God.” “Ethiopia” means, literally, the sun- 
burned or black races, and according to ancient writers, 
and modern ethnologists, includes the races of interior 
Africa. These shall “soon” stretch forth their hands to 
God. By “soon” is meant not soon as to time, but surely 
or certainly. The princes to come out of Egypt, denote 
the principles of truth pertaining to the spiritual man, 
while the hands to be stretched forth denote the works, 
the obedience, the will of the celestial man, which is 
appropriate to the genius of the Africans. The time 
shall certainly come when the Black Races will come forth 
to the perfect knowledge and worship of God. 

What can be done for the Africans by the New 
Church in Christendom working from the coasts inward? 
The same in essence that bandages do for a wound, — 
holding externals in order, so that the internal life may 
work. The people of interior Africa do not have an 
ecclesiasticism, with priesthood, sacraments and ritual 
complete, according to doctrine revealed from without. 
They have certain general truths of doctrine, but not the 
particulars. And even the generals are not adequately 
defined. They carry their general truths with them into 
the other world, and there they are instructed in true 
doctrine, which they readily receive, because there is 
nothing in them to preclude it. But it is necessary that 
it be presented, and they rejoice when it is pre- 
sented. They have an idea of the Lord as the spiritual 
sun of the universe, and of the Divine Humanity; but 
they must be taught by doctrine from without, either in 
this world or in the next, before they can have their ideas 
adequately defined and terminated. But when thus 
taught they easily grasp the particulars of doctrine, for 
they love to know truths. 


300 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


The influx in the good Africans would have been 
terminated and corrupted long ago if they had not been 
kept by their isolation from meeting false doctrinals. 
The Lord gives nothing subjective unless he also gives 
something objective. The Africans could have had no 
interior revelation at all but for the existence among 
them of true doctrine from the Word of the ancient 
Church called “Noah,” which spread over Africa as well 
as other countries. That doctrine in their minds is the 
containant of the internal revelation they receive. But 
it is not a sufficient containant; and the time is near, if 
not now, when the good Africans must be given the doc- 
trines of the Church even in this life. In the seven- 
teenth century Nordenskiold, an intelligent New-Church- 
man, lost his life in trying to carry the heavenly doc- 
trines into Central Africa; believing that the New 
Church would never grow until communication was 
opened between Central Africa and Europe, which he 
likened to the union of the will and understanding. At 
bottom he was right, but the time had not yet come for 
such a movement. But in the Lord’s good time it will 
come. Let the New Church be ready! 

Not by missionaries who teach falses can this work 
be done, but by those who teach only doctrines revealed 
from heaven. Such doctrines answer to the revelation 
now being made in Central Africa, as a matrix to its die, 
or as a mold to liquid metal. Not by sword and crucifix! 
The once powerful Portuguese were almost invincible, 
but they signally failed in their attempts upon Central 
Africa, which country they could not invade, and whose 
people held aloof. Nor yet by military organizations 
and powerful corporations! When these have failed, as 
fail they must, and as some of them have, it shall be 
found that the doctrines of the New Church will offer to 
the good Africans the only temple of faith which will 


PLANTING THE CHUECH 


301 


induce them to come forth from their long and mysteri- 
ous isolation. Then will the swallow have found a nest 
for herself, even thine altars, O Lord of Hosts. 

YII 

THE SILENT MISSIONARIES 

I 

BY THE REV. G. LAWRENCE ALLBULTT 

Silent, but yet speaking! Silent to the ear, yet appeal-’ 
ing to the thought by means of printed characters, the 
literature of the New Church has won, and will increas- 
ingly win triumphs of the most worthy kind. 

The Holy Word is written, and millions upon millions 
of copies have been produced and circulated far and wide 
in the present century alone, in many, many tongues, 
through the instrumentality of the printing press, that the 
promise may be realized: “It shall accomplish that which 
I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent 
it.” (Is. lv: 11.) 

The doctrines of the New Church are an unfolding 
of the word. The Herald of the Lord, Emanuel Sweden- 
borg has declared: “The second coming of the Lord is 
effected by means of a man, before whom He manifested 
Himself and filled with His spirit, to teach the doctrines 
of the New Church through the Word from him” (T. C. 
R., 779), and he asserts that this will be accomplished by 
a man “who is able not only to receive the doctrines of 
this Church in his understanding, but also to make them 
known by the press” (No. 779). The special use of this 
great civilizing agent is thus attained. Use is the law of 
the kingdom of the Lord. All things are, under Provi- 
dence, sent or directed towards the promotion of a salu- 
tary end. The happiness of mankind is what the Divine 
mercy and wisdom ever regard, and henceforth printing 
is to “move the world,” 


302 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


This art sublime is to carry the messages of mercy 
to heal and bless the nations. Side by side with the 
great Bible Societies, now exist the American and English 
Swedenborg Societies, instituted and equipped for the 
purpose of translating and publishing the writings of this 
“ Servant of the Lord,” whereby the genuine truths of 
the W ord are disclosed to the mental sight. Apart from 
the publication in the English language of these words, 
they have altogether or in part been published in Danish, 
Dutch, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, 
Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Welsh; also in 
Hindi. At its last annual meeting, the English Sweden- 
borg societies resolved upon the translation of the volume 
“Heaven and Hell” into the Arabic language. “The 
planting of the New Church” in the great Continental 
regions, Europe, America, Australia, Asia, Africa, though 
feeble, comparatively speaking, in its present develop- 
ment, will progress as new centers are opened up through 
the multiplying power which the press, mighty engine 
for the extension of the truth, affords. 

How divinely blessed this agency has already been in 
causing the light of the Word to shine, originally written 
in Latin! The works published in that language have 
been furnished to the great universities of the world and 
to many other institutions intended for the public use, 
that the learned in particular might have access to the 
truths which the Lord has revealed. But that every 
class may be provided for, and every one in his or her 
own tongue may have the opportunity of becoming 
acquainted with the good news of the kingdom henceforth 
to prevail, the abilities of our translators will be in in- 
creasing demand, since “All the ends of the earth shall 
remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kingdoms 
of the nations shall worship before thee.” (Ps. xxii: 27.) 


PLANTING THE CHURCH 


303 


In Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Philadel- 
phia, San Francisco and Washington, on this side the 
Atlantic, and in London and Manchester in England, books 
may be daily obtained at our bookrooms during the ordi- 
nary business hours, and as the means are forthcoming, this 
service will be extended successively to other localities. 
Meanwhile the free distribution of the writings and col 
lateral books is engaged in to a large extent. The dona 
tion to clergymen and theological students of all denomi- 
nations who requested “The True Christian Religion,” 
“Heaven and Hell,” “The Apocalypse Revealed,” and the 
“Life of Swedenborg,” was for the year ending December 
31st, last, at the rate of more than one hundred sets a 
month, being a total of 5,092 volumes for the entire year, 
and 109,062 since this mode of distribution was first 
adopted. By the generous provision of the Iungerich 
fund, and of the American New Church tract and publi- 
cation society, the free circulation of these four volumes 
among religious teachers and those preparing for this 
office in the two countries which form the North Ameri- 
can Continent will be continued for an indefinite period, 
thus aiding most effectually in the dissemination of the 
heavenly doctrines in the ranks of theologic opinion. 
Very numerous are the letters of thankfulness already 
received from the class alluded to for invaluable assist- 
ance in the spiritual career thus conferred. And when 
to this effort we take into account the thousands of copies 
of the smaller treatises disposed of in a smaller way, 
though not confined to the clergy and students of theol- 
ogy, but scattered broadcast among all willing to accept 
them, also the zeal displayed by our various institutions 
in supplementing this process by a judicious assignment 
of periodical and other literature explanatory of the great 
principles which the writings at first hand announced, 
shall we not rejoice indeed at the results that have 


304 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


followed? It is calculated that there are now 20,000 
receivers of the doctrines of the New Church altogether 
in the world. This is not a small number, after the lapse 
of a little over a century, to constitute the nucleus of 
that renovated Christianity which, in the twenty-first 
chapter of the Apocalypse is divinely promised. The 
preaching power has largely operated in bringing about 
this desirable issue; but missionary enterprise derives its 
main instrument of assistance from the printed page to 
enkindle further the interest which by oral proclamation 
has been aroused. As it is now the privilege of mankind 
to enter with the understanding into the mysteries of 
faith, the thought must be employed, the reason, under a 
sense of reverence for the glorious truths revealed, must 
be exercised in relation to them. Quiet reflection, and 
that just criticism which is determined that allegiance to 
the truth shall alone be served by the researches made, 
requires the help of a counselor continually in the field, 
A book, a tract, repeats its message again and again. Its 
assertions are constant, most unobtrusive in its deliver- 
ance, not answering unless questioned; yet is it ever 
ready to explain, console, or warn, as the case may be, 
when consulted for this purpose. . . . 

It may seem an astonishing fact, but the British Museum 
Catalogue of books added, from January, 1880, to August, 
1883, discloses that during the period in question there were 
four times more publications devoted to the advancement 
of this sacred cause than to any other form of belief. 
The same ratio is probably still maintained. There is 
vitality in these productions such as no other class of 
literature can supply. This is the reason why the duty 
is so imperative of making the most ample provision to 
give them publicity. The “ Silent Missionaries” often 
penetrate into regions where no other evangelizing effort 
can go. Their traveling expenses are limited to the postal 


PLANTING THE CHUKCH 


305 


rates. Untiringly they proclaim their message, unen- 
cumbered with the restrictions that are attached to utter- 
ance by the living voice. But thus the way is prepared 
for the living voice to be lifted up. 

The periodicals of the New Church are doing good 
work in promoting intelligent interest in the great 
evangel. They report progress at regular intervals as 
to how the work is proceeding. They meet special need 
in clearing away prejudices, checking false ideas and 
implanting correct ones. They aim at adapting the sub- 
lime truths of the new dispensation to the present or 
everyday requirements of the people, dealing with topics 
that are foremost in the public mind, and seeking to turn 
each opportunity given to account in directing attention 
to the light from the opened Word now shining, that 
what is wise and just from the Lord, in the realm of 
thought and conduct, may have sway. 

The New Church Messenger is our principal organ in 
America, and is issued every week in New York, a goodly 
sixteen-page periodical, laden with well-written articles 
on current and other subjects, a sermon, juvenile depart- 
ment, and interesting record of the hold which the 
doctrines are taken throughout the world. The Helper , 
issued from Philadelphia, except in the summer months, 
is the bearer of a sermon or lecture in tract form to 
thousands of grateful readers every week. Last year, 
323,300 copies in all were distributed, as well as thou- 
sands of other tracts, of which we possess many noble 
series. Ten other English periodicals, weekly and 
monthly, are published in this continent and in Great 
Britain, advocating the doctrines; also here and in 
Europe several German papers. Efforts in other parts 
of Europe, and in Australia and India, to convey the 
precious tidings through the channels of a magazine, are 
earnestly carried on, 


306 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


Year by year the fields are widening. We must be 
equal to the occasion, by the adequate employment of 
all the means at our command, in the pulpit, on the plat- 
form and through the press, to communicate what is so 
essential for the furtherance of the heavenly life of 
mutual usefulness and good will, from love to the Lord, 
among mankind. 


CHAPTER Y 


THE FUTURE OF THE NEW CHURCH 

I 

THE MISSION OF THE NEW CHURCH TO THE GENTILES 
BY BEV. ALBINUS F. FROST 

It is estimated that the population of the globe, 
divided according to Religions, is as follows: 

Jews 8,000,000 

Christians 353,000,000 

Mohammedans 120,000,000 

Parsees 1,000,000 

Fetichism of the aboriginal 
tribes of Africa, America 

and Polynesia 189,000,000 

Buddhists 483,000,000 

Total 1,274,000,000 

The Jews, Christians and Mohammedans are mono- 
theists, all the rest being polytheists and idolaters. The 
Jews possess the Old Testament Scriptures; the Chris- 
tians the Old and New Testament Scriptures; and the 
Mohammedans the Koran. The Mohammedan Religion 
acknowledges Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, the 
wisest of men, and the greatest of prophets, and that 
Religion was raised up by the Divine Providence to 
destroy the idolatries of many nations. In the Koran 
mention is made of many of the persons spoken of in the 
Bible. 

Thus it will be seen that at least 793,000,000 of the 

inhabitants of the earth are the Nations, Gentiles or 
307 


808 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


Heathen, referred to in the Bible, having no knowledge of 
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as the Creator, Kedeemer 
and Savior. In all these people the New Church is 
profoundly and sympathetically interested. How and 
why may be known from what Swedenborg says of their 
condition and needs in the “ Arcana Ccelestia,” Nos. 
2589, 2590, as follows: 

“ It is a general opinion that they who are born out 
of the Church, and who are called Pagans and Gentiles, 
cannot be saved, by reason that they are without the 
Word, and consequently are ignorant of the Lord, with- 
out whom there is no salvation. But still, that these 
also are saved may be known from this single considera- 
tion, that the mercy of the Lord is universal, — that is, 
extended to every individual man, and that they who are 
born out of the Church are nevertheless men, as well as 
those within the Church, who are comparatively few in 
number, and that it is no fault of theirs that they are 
ignorant of the Lord; wherefore the nature and quality 
of their state and condition in another life was made 
known to me, by the divine mercy of the Lord. I have 
had abundant information that the Gentiles who have led 
a moral life, and have been obedient, and have lived in 
mutual charity and have received something like con- 
science agreeable to their religious principles, are 
accepted in another life, and are there instructed by the 
angels with the utmost care in the goods and truths of 
faith; and when they are instructed they behave them- 
selves modestly, intelligently and wisely, easily receiving 
and imbibing what they are taught, inasmuch as they 
have formed to themselves no principles contrary to the 
truths of faith, which principles must be previously 
removed; much less scandals against the Lord, as in the 
case with many Christians, who have led an evil life. 
Moreover, such Gentiles indulge no hatred towards 


MISSION 01? THE CHURCH 


809 


others, never revenge injuries, nor give in to cunning 
strategems and artifices; no, nor wish ill to Christians, 
although Christians on their part despise the Gentiles, 
and do them injury to the utmost of their power, but the 
latter are delivered by the Lord from the unmercifulness 
of the former, and are protected. For with respect to 
Christians and Gentiles in another life, the case is this: 
Christians who have acknowledged the truths of faith 
and who at the same time have led a life of good, are 
accepted in preference to the Gentiles, but such Chris- 
tians at this day are few in number; whereas, the Gentiles 
who have lived in obedience and mutual charity are 
accepted in preference to the Christians who have not 
led a good life. For all persons throughout every earth 
in the universe are accepted and saved who have lived 
in good, good being the very essential principle which 
receives truth, and the good of life being the very ground 
of the seed, that is, of truth, which evil of life is incapable 
of receiving; for, if they who are principled in evil were 
to be instructed a thousand ways, and this instruction 
was of the most perfect kind, still the truths of faith 
would enter with them no further than into the memory, 
and would never penetrate into the affections of the 
heart; wherefore also the truths of their memory are 
dissipated and become no truths in another life.” 

In his “Reflections respecting the Works of Sweden- 
borg and the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem,” published 
by the Swedenborg Society, London, 36 Bloomsbury 
street, 1879, Rao Bahardur Dadoba Pandurung, a Hindoo 
gentleman of Bombay, India, himself a Gentile convert 
to the New Jerusalem, quotes the above passage from 
Swedenborg with great satisfaction, as giving light, hope 
and blessed relief respecting the eternal state of untold 
millions of God’s creatures. 


310 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


The Gentiles are by no means destitute of religious 
knowledge, principles and worship. They have temples, 
altars, sacrifices, forms of external worship and devotion, 
a priesthood, and sacred writings of their seers, prophets 
and wise men. They believe that there is a God, a life 
after death and a heaven and a hell. They also believe 
that it is sinful to steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, 
covet and blaspheme. Whence then, did they learn all 
these essential truths of Religion and salvation? We 
know now that they came from the ancient Church, reve- 
lation, priesthood and worship, established by the Lord 
after the flood with Noah and his posterity; Noah rep- 
resenting that ancient Church, and not being an individual 
man as has been supposed. Of this ancient Church 
Swedenborg has much to say which throws great light 
on the nations of antiquity. We can only refer to this, 
and then say that the Gentiles of the present day are the 
degenerate races of a true and spiritual revelation, 
Church and worship. That there are great evils and fab 
sities among the Gentiles of the present time, is most cer 
tain; but that they still have the means of being saved,, 
is equally certain. 

The Gentiles, like all other men, whether in this or 
the other world, need those truths of faith which are 
revealed only in the Old and New Testament Scriptures. 
Hence we read, “ The Gentiles shall come to thy light ” 
(Is. lx: 3). “ Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which 

set in darkness saw a great light ” (Matt, iv: 15, 16). 

‘ ‘ And the nations of them that are saved shall walk in 
the light of the New Jerusalem ” (Rev. xxi: 24). Thtts 
throughout the Word the Nations, Heathen and Gentiles 
are represented as being in darkness or ignorance, and 
as coming to the light, to the truth therefore; yea, to 
those truths of faith which they need to make their 
present life of humility, obedience, mutual love and 


MISSION OF THE OHUROH 


811 


charity, perfect and saving. This light or truth is given 
to them in the other world after death, if they did not 
know of it in this life. Such is the mercy of the Lord 
to the Gentiles. 

But it is always the mission of the Church to which 
the Lord has given His Word to carry the light of 
revealed truth to all nations. And during the past 
century the Scriptures have been printed in very many 
of the languages of earth, so that there is now scarcely 
a nation without the means of learning of the life, words 
and works of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer 
and Savior. The New Church, or the New Jerusalem, 
has, as we believe, received from the Lord in the writings 
of Swedenborg a revelation of the spiritual sense of the 
Word, the doctrine of the true Christian faith, and a 
knowledge of the state of man after death. This enables 
the men of that Church to disperse the errors and false 
doctrines of the former Christian Church, and to offer 
to all the world, Jew, Christian, Mohammedan, and 
Gentiles alike, those genuine truths of faith which every 
one needs, and must eventually have, in order to make 
him sincere, humble, and his loving desires and efforts to 
live a religious life, full, spiritual and perfect. 

It is interesting to observe that the ancient Gentile 
nations, such as the Greeks and Romans, were among 
the most enlightened people of whom we have any knowl- 
edge. They were highly educated in philosophy, art, 
literature, oratory and the drama, and produced generals 
and statesmen of great ability. Such names as Homer, 
Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Demosthenes, Livy, Caesar, 
Virgil, Cicero and Seneca, are well known to all scholars 
in Christian lands. It is impossible to believe that such 
men as these, and all their fellow citizens are among the 
lost in hell. The Gentiles of modern times, as the Jap- 
anese, Chinese, Hindoos, Africans and Indians, are not 


312 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


as wise and enlightened as those of ancient times. Yet 
in J apan, China and India, we find a high degree of civil- 
ization extending back thousands of years. And even 
the naked and partially civilized people of Africa, of the 
islands of the Pacific Ocean, and the Indians of North 
and South America, when first known to the Christian 
world, show wonderful capacities for what is just, kind 
and merciful. It is well known that they greatly fear 
Christians, who most unjustly and cruelly treat them and 
lead them into great evils, especially intemperance and 
licentiousness. 

If the New Church has a mission to these Gentiles it 
must exemplify to them the Christian Religion in all its 
virtues of love to God and charity towards the neighbor, 
in lives which are honest, truthful, chaste, temperate and 
merciful. Many of the Gentiles have myths or tradi- 
tions respecting the creation of the world, and the first 
men, the Garden of Eden and the Flood. All these and 
similar things the New Church can fully and rationally 
explain. The New Church can tell the Gentiles that the 
Lord received all their forefathers in the spiritual world 
after death, and by his angels instructed them in the 
genuine truths of a heavenly and eternal life. The New 
Church can unfold to the Gentile world a complete sys- 
tem of information respecting life, death, resurrection, 
judgment, heaven and hell, to take the place of the 
unsatisfactory and, in many ways, false teachings they 
have possessed on these subjects. The New Church can 
teach the Gentiles the origin and meaning of their 
altars, sacrifices, idols, temples, sacred fires, fasts, festi- 
vals, and various rites and formalities of external 
worship. 

Suppose there were published to the Gentile world, 
the first one thousand pages or more of Swedenborg’s 
“ Arcana Coelestia,” explaining the Creation, Garden of 


MISSION OS’ THE CHURCH 


813 


Eden, Serpent, Flood, Tower of Babel, and the call of 
Abram, together with what is said concerning the state 
of man after death, especially of the Gentiles themselves, 
would not an intelligent Gentile be able to quickly and 
easily realize the true character of the first chapters of 
Genesis as portraying the spiritual history of all the 
races and Churches of men for a long period of time, and 
would he not rejoice to perceive how good and merciful 
the Lord has been in providing both in this world and 
in the world to come for the salvation of all His children ? 

Surely this is the mission of the New Church to the 
Gentiles. That Church turns the tides of Gentile life 
upward and heavenward. 


II 

DUTY OF THE NEW CHURCH TO THE AFRICAN RACE 
BY ELLEN SPENCER MUSSEY 

“The Africans are more receptive of the heavenly 
doctrine than others on this earth, because they freely 
receive the doctrine concerning the Lord. They have it, 
as it were, implanted in them, that the Lord will appear 
altogether as a man. They are in the faculty of receiv- 
ing truths of faith and especially its goods, because they 
are of a celestial nature. ” (Last Judgment, 118.) 

When we consider the above statement and many 
others of like import in the writings of the Church, is it 
not strange that the first hundred years of organized 
New- Church work in America should have been directed 
entirely toward the Anglo-Saxon race? And may we 
not well doubt whether we have done wisely in this 
matter? Since the late war the various denominations 
of the Christian Church, with the exception of the New 

21 


314 


new-churcu congress 


Church, have been untiring in their efforts toward church 
extension among the colored people. Nearly every 
denomination has its fund specially set aside for this 
work. The colored membership of the Methodist, Bap- 
tist, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Episcopalian and 
Catholic Churches are all counted by tens and hundreds 
of thousands. To a race specially adapted to receive the 
true doctrine of the Lord has been taught the doctrine 
of three Gods; to a people who desire to be called the 
“obedient” has been taught the doctrine of the vicari- 
ous atonement; always a gentle people, and in heaven 
the “most loved of all Gentiles,” they have been terrified 
by an angry God and a hell of fire and brimstone. 

Religious instruction so illy adapted to their genius 
has not improved their daily life. Popular education, 
rather than Religion, has been the lever which has ele- 
vated the colored citizen. It is also true that as he is 
advanced intellectually, he leaves behind the child -like 
states which are the peculiarity of his race, and takes 
upon himself the skeptical tendency, which, in his white 
brother, is the great barrier to religious receptivity. 

The intelligent New- Churchman cannot read that 
wonderful book of Dr. James Garth Wilkinson on “The 
African and the True Christian Religion” without giving 
careful consideration to the proposition that “ The True 
Christian Religion is the Africans’ Magna Charta.” 
Who can prophesy what would be the effect upon the 
African of substituting true doctrine for false? Who 
can estimate its far reaching possibilities upon the eleva- 
tion of the race ? Asa Church and individually we have 
been derelict in our duty, in that we have not told our 
colored brethren that his physical freedom was only one 
of the many blessings in store for him through the 
Second Coming of the Lord; and we most humbly accept 


MISSION OF THE CHURCtf 


315 


our responsibility for the evils that may result from the 
teaching of false doctrine, when the true might be more 
readily accepted. 

The practical experience some of us have had in this 
work show that the people readily accept the doctrine of 
the Lord and in a short time seem to entirely drop the 
idea of the trinity of persons. They accept more slowly, but 
none the less surely, the “ Second Coming.” They drink 
in with delight the spiritual sense of the Word, and often 
express their thankfulness at the New Revelation. I 
have yet to meet a full blooded African who was Godless, 
or who disputed the inspiration of the Word. But, it is 
in a discussion of the other life and of the effect of the 
other world upon this, that the interior genius of the 
African most deeply impresses the teacher. It was the 
privilege of the writer to discuss with an adult class of 
fifteen, the Holy Communion; and it was an occasion 
never to be forgotten. To them the conjunction with the 
Lord through His angels is a reality not a theory ; and 
one who looked into their earnest faces could not but 
feel that Swedenborg had described truly their celestial 
genius. 

This people can be reached in two ways, through 
the combined religious instruction and education of the 
young, and through the ministers of their own race. The 
former method is that adopted with such success in 
Washington and Baltimore by the Episcopal Church. 
This Church has for years carried on an extensive edu- 
cational and industrial work. It has reached the children 
and, through them, the parents and so improved the home 
life. We may learn from their experience, and if we 
unite their methods to New- Church instruction, we may 
hope to accomplish such a work as will bring about the 
real elevation of the Colored Race, and cause us to rejoice 
that the Lord has allowed us to assist in the descent of 


316 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


the New Jerusalem. Twenty-two Colored Ministers are 
now learning of the New Church; eighteen of these are 
in Alabama and Georgia, and desire to come into the 
New Church, bringing with them many of the people 
under their charge, if the New Church were ready to care 
for them. 

Only the Lord can foresee the far-reaching possibilities 
of New-Church work for the African race. But when we 
reflect upon the failure of the missionary work of other 
denominations in far-off Africa, we can but consider the 
statements in Dr. Wilkinson’s book, as to the plans for 
African Colonization in 1779 when Charles Wadstrom 
and Henry Gandy, readers of Swedenborg, visited Africa 
for the purpose of promoting such a movement. The 
Africans in the United States have taken up for them- 
selves similar schemes. It is suggested by Dr. Wilkinson 
that this new movement must include the present 
religious heads of the race. “ It must be a religious 
exodus.” If this be so, it is our duty to see that those 
religious leaders go to the new field with the truths of the 
New Church. The field in Africa is virgin soil; let us, 
as a Church, sow the good seed, and the Lord will give 
the increase. If we truly desire the Lord’s Kingdom, to 
come upon earth as in heaven, we cannot longer neglect 
our African neighbor. It is a work in which we have 
every reason to expect the most wonderful assistance from 
the other world. It is a work which will help the New 
Church in just the ratio in which it gives itself to it. In 
the Grand Man we each need the other; who can say 
what help the New Church will receive from the African ? 
Perhaps we need him as much as he needs us. We are 
told that “In heaven the Africans are the most loved of 
all Gentiles; they receive the goods and truths of heaven 
more easily than the rest; they wish to be called toe 
obedient, not the faithful.” (H. H. 326.) 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


317 


III 

THE MISSION OF THE NEW CHURCH TO THE 
CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS 

BY REV. JULIAN K. SMYTH 

The Church is in the world to receive and make known 
the Word of God. As to the prophet of an older dispen- 
sation, so to her now, the divine admonition is addressed: 
“He that hath My Word let him speak My Word faith- 
fully.” There were not a few in the prophet’s day who 
“spoke a vision out of their own heart, and not out of 
the mouth of the Lord.” There were many who went 
about prophesying false things, and by their falsities and 
“the lightness of their speech,” caused the people to err. 
The prophet that hath a dream let him tell a dream ; and 
he that hath My Word let him speak My Word faithfully. 
What hath the straw to do with the wheat, saith the Lord ? 
It was all-important then, it is all important now, that 
the Word of God should be known from the word of man; 
that the former should not be spoken as if it were the 
latter, and that the latter should not be offered as a 
substitute for the former. 

The Church of God should stand as a constant and 
living witness to the fact, that there is a Word, and that 
that Word is addressed to the spiritual life of man; and 
the end of her highest endeavor must be to receive with 
open mind and beating heart the message of God to His 
children, and then with all possible power and unction to 
make it known. It would be quite aside from our pur- 
pose to argue the possibility of revelation. We shall 
assume that an omnipotent Being finds it possible to 
reveal Himself to those whom he created in His image 
and likeness, that they might know and love Him. We 


318 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


shall assume that a Being of infinite wisdom finds some- 
thing to reveal, which man can understand and needs to 
know. And we shall further assume that a Being of 
infinite love cannot fail to make Himself available to the 
intelligence and affections of His people. But, having 
assumed this, the question grows all the more imperious. 
Where is that knowledge to be had ? Where is such a 
revelation to be found? What, in short, and where is 
this Word of God, and how is Its message to be known? 
We consider only the Christian answer to this question. 
And we consider it both because it is one of pressing and 
vital importance, and because the answer to the question 
proposed should meet another inquiry which especially 
concerns us, namely: What is the New Church for, and 
what is its mission to the Christian Denominations ? 

The Christian Bible, which by many is still regarded 
as in some way the Word, abounds in such statements as 
“The Word of the Lord came;” and reverent scholar 
ship still affirms that “ God did of old time speak unto 
the prophets by diverse portions and in divers manners.” 
And striking indeed is it to see with what variety the 
Word was given, and with what confidence as to Its 
reality It was received. Sometimes the Word, or message 
of God, comes in a vision or dream, as to Abram, with 
whom God makes a covenant, to Moses standing with 
bare feet before the burning bush and receiving his com- 
mission as the liberator of his people, to Elijah standing 
at the opening of the cave in Horeb, and burying his 
face in his mantle, as the “ still small voice ” speaks to 
his soul, to Ezekiel, gazing upon the great white temple. 
Sometimes the Word comes in audible messages, which, 
whether the hearer understands them or not, or whether 
they can be heard by others or not, are too real to be 
mistaken. Sometimes the Word comes by that individual 
contact of the Divine Spirit with the spirit of man, which 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


819 


always has been possible, and which directs the message 
to be spoken. Rightly, men say, that the proof that 
such experiences are a coming of the Word must be in 
the charactor of the message in which that Word 
embodies Itself. And yet the reality of that experience 
with those claiming to have had it is not to be overlooked. 
“But the Word of God, which through many advanc- 
ing centuries had come in syllables and letters to the 
men of old, a Divine language finding expression in 
human lips, at last, in the fullness of time came not in 
this fragmentary way, lisping in alternate exclamations 
and silences, but embodied in a Person full of grace and 
truth.” (Verbum Dei.) This is the statement of one whose 
recent utterances have produced a profound impression, 
and we welcome it for its testimony to the completeness of 
the Word in the historic Person of Jesus the Christ; and it 
is testimony of a kind which may be trusted to multiply, 
for there is a portion of the Christian world which year 
by year grows more fond and sure of that declaration of 
the Fourth Gospel, “And the Word was made flesh and 
dwelt among us; and we beheld His glory, the glory as 
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
truth.” More and more this becomes, as, indeed, it has 
been called, “ the touchstone ” for testing the Word. 

These two convictions, then, we find in at least a 
portion of the great Christian commonwealth: First, 
that it is true, that the Word of the Lord was given in 
divers portions and in divers manners unto men who 
were “like the eye and the ear and the tongue of the 
people to which they belonged;” and that these mes- 
sages have been preserved in the Christian Bible; and, 
second, that in the Person of Jesus Christ, there is an 
embodiment or personification of the Word, or Truth of 
God, which is positive and perfect. There is a thought, 
however, which is meeting with favor, and which needs 


320 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


to be considered, namely, that there is a Word of God 
outside the Scriptures and the Person of the Word made 
flesh. 

1. The study of ethnology and of comparative phil- 
ology has certainly widened our view of the operation of 
the Divine Spirit, and helped us to recognize the marks 
of Its gracious touch in the so-called lower Religions. 
The hieroglyphs of Egypt, it is declared, have revealed 
that “the dwellers by the Nile, four thousand years 
before Christ, sang hymns to God which we might use 
to-day.” The decipherment of the curriform inscrip- 
tions bring to light a primitive world-history strangely 
similar to the early chapters of Genesis. The “Book of 
the Dead,” or the Rig-veda, or the Zend-avesta, or the 
teachings of Confucius and Menzius, all tend to widen 
our horizon of the sphere of the Divine operations, and 
encourage us to believe that God has never left Himself 
without some witness among the children of men. 

2. Nor is this operation limited to men of old. Age 
after age, even when the Church has suffered from cor- 
ruptions, the Word of the Lord has in some measure or 
degree found its way to earnest hearts. Thomas a 
Kempis, St. Bernard, Luther, Wesley, Maurice, Rob- 
ertson, Horace Bushnell, Phillips Brooks, — these are 
names which are often mentioned as receiving and uttering 
something of the eternal Word. 

3. And not men alone but nature, through which we 
are learning to see that “ the invisible things of God may 
be clearly seen, being understood by the things that are 
made;” Art, forever striving to express the beautiful; 
Science, bearing its witness to the eternal order of the 
Cosmos; Philosophy, in its search for causes, and pro- 
claiming “the existence and the verdicts of the moral 
sense;” Poetry, “chanting the psalm of the earth and its 
teeming life ” — these are also looked upon as, the eyes and 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


821 


ears, and tongues through which the Word of the Lord 
becomes apprehended, and which grows with the ages. 

It is at this very point, where the fragments of wis- 
dom, of ancient Religions, and the wonders of the Cosmos, 
and the creations of Art, and the searchings of Philos- 
ophy, and the rapturous song of Poesy, all deliver their 
messages as if with prophet’s voices, that men of to-day 
are apt to surrender their faith, not in a Word, but in the 
Word; not in a Revelation, but in the perfect, crowning 
Revelation, of whose content of Divine wisdom these 
other words are often forerunners and witnesses. It is 
this very widening of our visions to the omnipresence of 
God’s spirit, which leads many, not to deny that the Bible 
is the Word, but to withhold from it the belief that it is 
such in any exceptional or final way. Everything, accord- 
ing to this thought, whether in facts of nature of history, 
in literature, religious or secular, in the phenomena of 
spiritual experience, — everything which reveals the true 
and the beautiful in God, in His Word; the Scriptures 
along with the rest, yet not differently from the rest. 
And the thought gains currency even in Christendom, 
because it appears to be so intensely religious. And the 
term “Bibliolatry” is applied to those who still maintain 
that the Christian Bible is the Word of God, uniquely 
and pre-eminently. And they who make the claim are 
called upon to show upon what ground, other than that 
of pious tradition, such a claim rests. It is a just sum- 
mons. It is a tremendous responsibility. If these Script- 
ures are in any adequate sense, not a Word, but the Word 
of God, “the fountain of wisdom for angels and men,” 
the Christian Church has no more important duty than 
to show the reason for it and to demonstrate it; not for the 
sake of dishonoring these other “words,” or bidding them 
be still as if they had hostile messages, but to maintain 
this Word in its integrity, and to bring to Christian faith 


322 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


and consciousness fresh evidences of its certainty and 
power, and of its being the most perfect medium of 
spiritual life. Precisely this it is which the Christian 
Church is now more than ever called upon to show; to 
“search the Scriptures” in sure and fond belief, that in 
them there is eternal life; to open them, as the Book in 
Heaven was opened; to reveal their spiritual content. 
Here, then, we believe is the great necessity; not disclaim- 
ers of other messages of God, not mere claims of the 
superiority of this Word of God, but demonstration of 
Its Divine character, by the revelation of Its spiritual 
contents. 

And here is where the New Church longs to be of 
service to the Christian denominations. For when we 
ask them, What steps do you take, what means do you 
employ for unfolding this Scripture and gaining a knowl- 
edge of Its divine contents ? What are the answers ? 

1. Study: Study of all kinds; general study of the 
Book as a whole, special study of separate books, philo- 
logical and exegetical study, devotional study, study of 
the facts around us, the signs of the times, the movements 
of thought, the trend of development. 

2. Meditation: The steadfast setting of the mind on 
things unseen and eternal, on God and the soul, on the 
authority and dictates of the moral law, on life and human 
destiny. 

3. Prayer: In humble temerity and with resolution made 
firm by weakness, grappling with God, spirit to spirit, 
knee to knee, hand to hand, since He graciously permits it. 

Who shall say that these are not worthy and even 
necessary means for searching for the “Word of Life,” 
which the Scriptures contain? Who shall say that they 
are not being faithfully employed by many of Christ’s 
servants; and that often as a result of their efforts, “there 
ariseth light in the darkness?” And yet what one of those 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


323 


servants will claim that by such efforts this Word of the 
Lord, this completest of written revelations ; is now fully 
opened, and its spiritual contents, from that primitive 
world history to the symbolisms of the Apocalypse, are so 
revealed that they can be fully and systematically set 
forth to the children of men ? 

Is there not one other means which should indeed be 
linked with these others, and which the Lord by His 
own act to those whom He sent forth to preach His 
Word, has given us a right to expect? For this is what 
He did : “ Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He 
expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things con- 
cerning Himself. . * . And He said with them, These 

are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet 
with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were 
written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in 
the Psalms concerning Me. Then He opened their 
understanding, that they might understand the Script- 
ures:” (St. Luke xxiv: 27, 44, 45.) There was a 
way then, there must be a way now, of so opening 
the Word to human understanding, that it v may 
see with the eye of intelligence the underlying 
meaning of histories and prophecies and songs and 
parables; and so to see them that in their deepest and 
most spiritual content they shall all testify of the life and 
work of Him who fulfilled the Scriptures and became the 
Word Incarnate. Just as when He took that frag- 
ment of Israelitish history and held it up, saying, “ As 
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must 
the Son of Man be lifted up,” men, from that day on, 
have seen how wonderfully, although unconsciously, that 
act of Moses in the desert expressed a truth which waited 
for its fulfillment in the lifting up of the Son of Man. 
We often say,- — the whole Christian world unites in 
saying, — that the Bible reveals Jesus Christ, but it is 


324 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


equally a truth that Jesus Christ reveals the Bible; for 
“the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’’ 
And it is the mission, the precious and glorious mission, 
of the New Church to say to the Christian world: That 
which the Christ once did for His messengers can be 
done now. For in the fullness of time, and in fulfill- 
ment of His promise to tell us many things, and show us 
plainly of the Father, He has revealed a knowledge of 
His Word, of Its structure, of the meaning of Its symbols, 
by means of which It can be, nay, has been opened; and 
always with this result, which is the surest sign of Its 
having been done by the same gracious hand, that from 
end to end, in Its deepest depths, there is revelation in every 
part of the life and work of Him who said, “ They testify 
of Me.” And it is the mission of the New Church to the 
denominations to say to them from actual experiences: 
This new knowledge of the Word of God is not offered 
as our guess as to Its mystical meaning, but as a revela 
tion from the spirit of the Lord, made known through 
the instrumentality of a man raised up and spiritually 
prepared to receive in his understanding truths which 
will open the Word to Christian minds and reveal the 
Son of Man coming in its cloudy letter “in power and 
great glory.” At least, do not ignore this claim; do not 
set aside this system of Bible interpretation as impossible 
until, like us, your Christian brethren, who seek to know 
the Lord in His Word as you seek to know Him, you 
have included it in your study,, and have brought it to 
the Word; and there, with the prayer which the Word 
Itself puts upon your lips that your eyes may be opened 
to behold wondrous things out of the Law, test it! 

But our subject is not complete unless and until we 
speak more fully of Him whom the Word reveals, and 
who embodies in His Person the Truth which the Word 
contains. There have been holy men, there have been 


MISSION OF THE CHUKCH 


825 


religions teachers and leaders, but to no one who ever 
trod upon this earth has the question asked of Him been 
put so persistently and with such a sense of its 
importance: “Who art Thou? What sayest Thou of 
Thyself ? ” He was, comes our answer, a man endowed 
in a remarkable manner with the Spirit of God, which, 
while leaving His nature wholly human, yet gave to His 
life the ethical and spiritual value of Divinity. That 
answer is not intended as irreverent. It claims the actu- 
ality of the human; of “the Man of Sorrows and 
acquainted with grief.” It affirms the value and inspira- 
tion of His example, and of His fellowships in all our 
experiences and conditions. And yet, how can the 
answer ever be regarded as complete? If He, a “mere 
man,” was endowed in a remarkable manner with the 
Spirit of God, must He not have known the real quality 
of His nature? And if He knew Himself to be “only 
human,” how could He have claimed such divine pre- 
rogatives, and used language with reference to Himself 
which nothing can justify unless the nature that spoke 
them was divine? How could “only a man,” however 
“remarkably endowed,” allow men to worship Him? 
How could he assume the right to forgive sin? How 
could He seriously say, not, “ I can bring you the Bread 
of Life,” but, “ I am the living Bread that came down 
from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread he shall 
live forever!” How could He say, not, “I can tell you 
of the Resurrection and of Life,” but, “ I am the Resur- 
rection and the Life!” If He was only a man, what 
amazing self-assurance, to bid His disciples baptize in 
His name; or to institute the Holy Supper which was to 
be commemorated in remembrance of Him! Why does 
He so constantly present Himself as indispensable to 
man’s spiritual life, actually saying: “Without Me ye 
can do nothing;” “ No man cometh unto the Father but 


326 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


by Me.” Why that constant “Follow Me!’' “Follow 
Me!” Why this founding of a Church upon Himself as 
the Rock, against which the gates of hell are never to 
prevail ! Why this hope, this promise to draw all men 
unto Him , — unto Him , the “ mere man,” — if only He is 
lifted up! 

We are to put aside such declarations, we are some 
times warned, as of doubtful authority, and because they 
may be additions of over-zealous followers. But they 
cannot be put aside! They are as much a part of the 
record as any other portion from which we derive our 
knowledge of Him. All the Gospels and the beliefs of 
the early Church are alive with this thought of His 
Divinity. Strike them all out, strike out the records of 
the birth, “ the works” to which He appeals, the resur- 
rection and ascension, which turned Galilean fishermen 
into heralds of a new age, and nothing, not even the 
“ mere man,” remains. And this is certain: the accusa- 
tion made against Him by the religious leaders, and 
which led to His death, was that of blasphemy; blas- 
phemy on this ground, and which was thus expressed: 
“ Because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God /’’ 

Ah, pleads a new voice, urging upon faith a new 
motive, it does not matter what the Christ was, whether 
human only, whether divine, whether actual even, pro- 
vided we maintain the Christian ideal which has sprung 
up and which may be quite independent of “Him who 
first made it shine into our souls;” provided, too, we 
believe in the spirit of sympathy, from which the deeds 
of His life were said to spring; since “it is the spirit 
apart from its objective manifestation in the Christ of 
the New Testament, which is essential.” This is the 
new call to what has been styled “a more spiritual appre- 
hension of the Gospel.” A spiritual apprehension we 
surely need; but it is not to be gained by discarding nor 


MISSlOtf OF THE CHURCH 


S27 


even slighting the facts from which both the ideal and 
the spiritual impulse to attain it have sprung. For it is 
well claimed that “ there is no reasonable doubt that the 
Church was founded on the implicit belief in the perfec- 
tion of His earthly life; and every group of Apostolic 
witnesses confirms to us this fact. And the figure of 
this matchless Person remains the one in whom the ideal 
of man has been once for all realized, the source of a 
regeneration of society which, as it proceeds to its 
farthest limit, will ever more completely embody, while 
it will never outgrow the spirit of Him in whom it 
begftn.” (“The Place of Christ in Modern Thought.”) 

Furthermore, how are we to know that the ideal is 
true, or how is it to be maintained, if it be separate from 
any objective manifestation ? If the ideal of truth and 
love, of God and Man, which reason has ever sought to 
picture to itself, is not founded upon the fact of its actual 
manifestation in the historic Person of Jesus Christ, whom 
St. John declares, “we have heard, whom we have seen 
with our eyes, whom we have looked upon and our hands 
have handled of the Word of life,” but is only a mental 
creation, by what possibility can we be sure that it, the 
ideal, is not a spirited phantasm ? Rightly it is said that 
“the historic Christ becomes for the first time wholly real 
to us, when He authenticates His living energy by the 
power of His Spirit within us.” But the energy, that 
which draws and sustains, and strengthens, must be the 
infinite energy of a Person, who manifests and gives rise 
to the ideal, who knows our needs and capacities, and 
above all, who gives us the power, the life, to mount 
toward that ideal. 

In all ages the heart and flesh cry out, not simply 
for an ideal, but for “the living God.” To have that 
God manifested in a person whom we can know and 
follow, is to satisfy the deepest want and the supremeet 


328 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


need of the human heart. Not a human example 
simply, not an image having no objective reality, but a 
Person, human in His outward manifestation, divine as 
to His inmost soul or being, from Whom there proceeds 
a Spirit of Infinite regenerating power. God manifest 
in the human as the human form of God, the eternal 
Word personified in the flesh, — that is what wins the 
confession: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast 
the words of eternal life; and we believe and are sure 
that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” 
“ The Son of the living God,” as the body might be 
called the son of the indwelling soul, manifesting its 
life, inspiring the lips, doing its behest, and not as a 
second or separate person of the Godhead. The early 
Church looked upon their Lord as “ the only wise God, 
our Savior, in Whom dwelleth all the fullness of the 
Godhead bodily.” They thought of the Father as in 
Him, and of the Holy Spirit as from Him. They 
preached repentance and the remission of sins in His 
name. “ They went forth and preached everywhere, the 
Lord working with them and confirming the Word with 
signs following.” It was only in later years when, under 
the impetus of Greek philosophy, men began to inquire 
how God could be in Christ, and what was the exact 
relationships between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that 
heresies arose and multiplied; and in order to preserve 
the thought of the Divinity of Christ, the dogma of 
three co-equal and co- eternal Persons, was promulgated. 

But before this doctrine, reason has always stood 
perplexed, and will no longer be satisfied with the 
declaration that “ it is a Divine mystery which must not 
be inquired into.” It had never been able to explain why 
one Divine Being should suffer to satisfy the justice of 
another Divine Being; or why, if these Beings are 
co-equal and co-eternal, one of them should speak of the 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


829 


other as greater than Himself; or say, that of Himself 
He could do nothing; or, that the doctrine which He 
proclaims is not His but His that sent Him. It has never 
been able to reconcile this doctrine with a strict mono- 
theism, or harmonize it on rational grounds with the 
Divine declaration: “Thus saith Jehovah that created the 
heavens, God Himself that formed the earth and made 
it; I am Jehovah, and there is none else; a just God 
and a Savior; there is none beside Me.” 

But now, the Spirit that has provided for the opening 
of the written Word has also provided through the same 
means for a rational understanding of the incarnation of 
God in Christ, and of the Trinity as a trinity of attri- 
butes, or essentials of one Person. Especially has it 
revealed a knowledge of that process which our Lord 
called His “Glorification,” by which the Divine Soul 
conformed to Itself the Human which was put on by 
birth, through the putting off of everything that was 
infirm and finite, and the putting on, or substitution, of 
the Divine within, thus forming a Humanity which is 
Divine, in which He ascended, which we can see in 
thought, and approach with affection, and which is 
forever the perfect, the sensitive, the personal medium 
by which the Divine Spirit is immanent with men. 

And it is the great privilege of the New Church to 
make this truth, and all that helps to explain it, available 
to the thought of Christendom; to bear its witness to 
the Divine character not only of the written Word, but 
of that Personal Word, in Whom Its revelations are for- 
ever embodied and verified in a Form, a Being, whose 
nature shines before us, whose invitations haunt us, and 
whose spirit searches and befriends us. 

King of Kings and Lord of Lords, was He called 
whom John beheld in Apocalyptic vision seated on a 

22 


m 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


white horse, going forth conquering and to conquer. 
And He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. 
And His vesture was sprinkled with blood. And His 
name is called “The Word of God.” It is a type, the 
heavenly, the prophetic type of the victorious might which 
there is in the spiritual truth of the written Word, and 
of the Word Incarnate. In the positive assurance of 
this double truth, we would go to the Christian Denomi- 
nations and say: “Though our numbers should be few, 
aud though we should often be misunderstood and mis- 
represented, we bear our unanimous and unfaltering wit- 
ness to the truth, that the Scriptures are pre-eminently 
the Word of God, and that the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
embodied in His gracious Person the spiritual truth con- 
tained within that Word, is the one perfect all -loving, 
ever-present Savior of men. Divine in origin, human in 
birth, Divinely-human through “glorification.” As to 
His soul or inmost Being, the “Father;” as to His Human, 
the “Son;” as to the life and saving power that go forth 
from His glorified nature, “the Holy Spirit.” And we 
come to you, not to proclaim those truths as if unsup- 
ported by reasons, but we hold out to you, with hands 
that would take yours in fraternal sympathy, the helps 
and interpretations which have opened our eyes to a new 
belief in these things, which we neither offer nor accept 
as mere personal opinions, but which, after the most 
earnest examination, we sincerely believe to have been 
divinely given; that the facts of our common faith may 
be seen in new and clearer light, and that new and 
authoritative truth maybe provided for the growing needs 
of this new and growing age. Upon us as upon you rests 
the solemn, yet precious duty of ministering to the spirit- 
ual life of men. For us, as for you, there is no dearer 
privilege than to open the Word of God and cause their 
hearts to burn with new hopes and desires. To open 


MISSION OP THE CHURCH 


331 


the Word, and be able to reveal always and everywhere, 
the face and form of Him, who bore our griefs, and car- 
ried our sorrows; God-in- Christ, the God-with-us. The 
world, our own great Christian world needs this ministry, 
needs to have the Word opened and the Divinely human 
nature of the Word Incarnate made clear to faith. For 
other messages are being spread abroad; other Christs 
are saying, “Come unto Me.” But God is in His Word 
and will preserve it; and we trust the lips that said in 
anticipation of many an inward and outward change that 
would transform the religious world: “Heaven and earth 
shall pass away; but My Words shall not pass away!” 

IV 

THE MISSION OF THE NEW CHURCH TO BIBLICAL 
CRITICISM 

BY THE REV. JOHN C. AGER. 

The mission of the New Church to Biblical Criticism, 
the topic I am asked to consider, is the mission of spiritual 
truth to scientific research and its results. For Biblical 
criticism, in a strict or scientific sense, is simply the appli- 
cation of the accredited methods of scientific investigation 
to the ancient documents that we call the Bible. The sci- 
entific spirit of the age demands that every object of human 
interest shall be made a subject of exact and exhaustive 
study and investigation, that is, shall be made to declare 
just what it is; and an object of such supreme interest as 
the Bible cannot be made an exception to this requirement. 
The general feeling of its holiness that has pervaded 
Christendom has doubtless retarded the application of 
these methods to the Bible; but no such feeling can long 
withstand the imperative demand of our times for exact 
and verified knowledge on every subject. The student of 


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secular history cannot subject all other ancient documents 
to his methods and tests and leave these most important 
of all ancient documents unscrutinized. Biblical criticism 
is demanded, therefore, in the interest of secular history 
and its allied sciences. The student of the history of 
doctrine or opinion cannot ignore these investigations, and 
must join in them in order to verify or disprove them. 
And the results of these studies will vitally affect, in 
many ways, existing religious doctrines. Such investiga- 
tion or criticism of the Bible is therefore inevitable, and 
no intelligent student of the Bible can ignore its results. 

But in considering this subject certain careful dis- 
criminations are necessary, In the first place, there 
must be a careful disci imination between the scientific 
method and any temporary conclusions or opinions that 
may be associated with it or may claim its sanction. 
The so called scientific method is a method of studying 
phenomena to ascertain the truths or verities that the 
phenomena reflect. No intelligent person can question 
the value of the method. Within certain limits it 
is the best known help in ascertaining or discovering 
truth. Within much wider limits it is the only method 
by which truth that comes to the mind in other ways 
can be verified and established; and in some respects all 
opinion and doctrine must be tested by it. 

It is therefore a false or ignorant reverence for the 
truth that would disparage the scientific method, or the 
application of it to things we esteem holy. It must be 
applied to all subjects of human inquiry, and its testi- 
mony must be allowed its full value. 

What then is this scientific method of investigation 
that is called, in its application to the Bible, Biblical 
criticism? 

It is, in the first place, an exhaustive scrutiny of all 
the facts or phenomena or data that are related to a 


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subject, and of the relations of these to one another. It 
is, in the second place, an effort to ascertain the meaning 
of the facts or data; or the truth they reflect. And this 
is done by assuming the explanation of the facts that 
seem most probable, and then proceeding to compare 
the assumed explanation with all the facts to ascertain 
how far it explains, and how far it fails to explain, and 
accepting, modifying or rejecting it accordingly. This 
assumed explanation or hypothesis or theory may be an 
existing belief, or it may be suggested by related beliefs 
or verified principles, or it may be a ^product of the 
student’s imagination or insight. But from whatever 
source it may come, aod however valuable or valueless it 
may prove to be, this assumed explanation or hypothesis 
is an essential feature of the investigation. There must 
be first the hypothesis, then the careful comparison with 
the data, then the conclusion as to the validity of the 
hypothesis or theory. No one has ever questioned the 
excellent statement of this point by Comte in his Positive 
Philosophy: 

No real observation of any kind of phenomena is possible 
except so far as it is first directed by some theory, and after- 
wards interpreted by it. . . . The facts that must form the 

basis of a positive theory could not be collected to any purpose 
without some preliminary theory which should guide their 
collection. Our understanding cannot act without some doctrine, 
false or true, vague or precise, which may concentrate and 
stimulate its efforts, and afford ground for enough speculative 
continuity to sustain our mental activity. 

And it is this necessity for preliminary theory or 
doctrine in all profitable investigation that made the 
theological period, according to Comte’s theory, the first 
stage of intellectual development. 

This is a truth we must keep distinctly in mind in 
estimating the merits or the results of any phase of 
scientific investigation, or in judging of the applicability 


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of the scientific method to religious questions. Failing 
to discriminate between the method and its legitimate 
results, and the mass of unverified theory and hasty 
conclusion and extravagant opinion with which the 
method is surrounded, it is claimed by many and feared 
by many others that the application of the scientific 
method to religious beliefs would wholly disprove such 
beliefs and sweep them from the earth. These are idle 
claims and idle fears. The history of scientific investiga- 
tion makes clear that the scientific method is applicable 
to all departments of human knowledge and belief, and 
that any belief that cannot stand its scrutiny must ulti- 
mately be set aside. But it also makes clear that the 
attainment of permanent results by scientific investiga- 
tion is a very slow process, and that thus far, in respect 
to the final verification of theory or of principles or a 
true philosophy of nature, it has been an almost com- 
plete failure. The concrete results of scientific study 
fill every mind with wonder; the philosophical results 
can be contemplated only with sadness. This is true of 
every branch of science. Theory after theory has been 
adopted only to be proved untenable. Even in chem- 
istry, the simplest and the oldest of this class of sciences, 
the changes of theory and classification still going on 
are almost revolutionary. No conservative scientist 
to-day regards the great mass of scientific concepts as 
anything more than convenient working theories. It is 
very clear that in all departments of human knowledge 
the marriage of verified data with true philosophy is yet 
a thing of the future. 

All this is equally true of this new science that is 
claiming our attention. Biblical criticism, although it 
claims Erasmus as its father, has taken on the forms and 
claims and pretenses of a science only within a few years. 
It is in its infancy, although it is an infant with such 


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lusty lungs as to make us forgetful sometimes of its 
age. It is an attempt to ascertain and analyze and 
classify a wholly new range of facts. It is in the same 
condition that all other sciences are in their infancy. 
It is sadly deficient both in right theory and in verified 
data; and its disciples are exhibiting the same lack of 
caution and modesty that has been exhibited by the 
disciples of every other science in its infancy. And the 
development of this science will doubtless follow the same 
steps as other sciences have followed. We shall see the 
same readiness to take up inadequate theories drawn 
from other branches of science, the same slowness to 
recognize the pertinence of neglected data, the same 
boldness in asserting unverified conclusions. But the 
method is not to be judged by the follies of unwise 
disciples. 

It has been asserted repeatedly, and is believed by 
many, that science disproves the existence of the soul, 
because the chemist, applying to the body the methods of 
his science, and the anatomist dissecting and scrutinizing 
every part and organ of the body, and the microscopist 
subjecting every cell and atom to the highest magnifying 
powers of his instrument, are all compelled to testify that 
no trace of a soul can be found. But the inadequacy of 
this verdict comes from applying to this subject tests and 
methods that do not pertain to it. The chemist and the 
anatomist and the microscopist can furnish much infor- 
mation about the human body that is of incalculable 
value, but that does not entitle them to give us the final 
verdict respecting the vital force that animated the body, 
or the soul that formed and used it. In the decision 
of that question physical tests and methods wholly fail ; 
and a wholly new range of tests and methods must be 
brought into play. 


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When we turn to Biblical criticism, do we not find it 
employing, thus far, almost exclusively the methods of 
an allied but different science, namely the science of his- 
torical criticism ? Historical criticism has been busying 
itself for many years with ancient documents and tradi- 
tions; and the results of its investigations have wholly 
changed the face of ancient history. A treatise on the 
history of any ancient nation written a generation ago 
is to-day comparatively worthless as exact history. Meth- 
ods and tests have been devised and have been perfected 
by use, that enable the scholar to pronounce with great 
confidence upon the age of any ancient document, and 
upon its authenticity and veracity, and the historical 
value of its contents. 

Biblical criticism consists thus far almost exclusively 
of the application of these methods and tests, which 
have proved so valuable in historical study, to the ancient 
documents contained in the Christian Bible; and the 
dominant assumption seems to be that the documents are 
to be studied in the same way as other historical docu- 
ments, that is, are amenable to the same tests and 
methods that have been so long and successfully applied 
to other historical material. The assumption is, in other 
words, that the Bible is simply a collection of literature 
that has come down to us from the past, a product of 
human thought, and is consequently to be judged, and 
its value determined by the same tests and methods as 
have been applied to other ancient documents. If this 
assumption is true, these accredited methods of historical 
criticism are undoubtedly the best attainable methods of 
Biblical study; and the results are to be welcomed as 
precious additions to our intellectual treasures. But if 
this assumption is not true, if the Bible differs from other 
literature, as a living plant differs from the soil out of 
which it grows, or as a living man differs from all that 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


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chemistry and biology and microscopy can tell us about 
his body, then the results of our present Biblical criticism 
must not be taken as the sum total of what we are to 
think about the Bible. 

And do not the illustrations referred to make clear 
the weak point in these and all other scientific investiga- 
tions ? Two kinds of results are to be expected from 
scientific research; first, an accumulation of facts or data, * 
and the application of these to practical uses, and 
secondly, the enrichment of the mind by the acquisition 
of truth, or the establishment of a true philosophy of 
things. In the former field scientific research has done 
wonders, in the latter almost nothing. And is there any 
other plausible reason than that the scientific mind is not 
yet ready for the true philosophy of things? When- 
ever that is recognized, science will have in all its 
branches the theory that will harmonize all its facts, and 
that will be completely verified by all the facts; and 
science and Religion will be no more twain, but one 
flesh. 

This is the mission of the New Church to all scientific 
investigation. We of the New Church claim that 
Emanuel Swedenborg has given to the world the true 
philosophy of things, the true theory or hypothesis for 
which science has been waiting; and without which it 
must needs be fruitless in philosophical results. When 
this has been married to true science, as it will be in the 
centuries to come, both nature and the Bible will be open 
books, which will furnish, not merely the dry husks of 
natural knowledge, but the laws of existence and of all 
true and noble living, which will be the veritable water 
of life to all true thirst for truth. 

What Biblical criticism needs, then, to make it 
fruitful in permanent results is a true theory of Divine 
revelation. That, we claim, has been given by Sweden- 


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borg. This doctrine it will be the province of other 
speakers before this Conference to set forth. I may be 
permitted to say of it that in its general form it is 
not a new doctrine, but is older than Christianity. 
But it could not be disclosed and elaborated in its par- 
ticulars until the human mind had been made ready for 
right conceptions of natural things. So a century and a 
quarter ago, when the new kingdom of science was at 
hand, the new philosophy, which is to be its helpmeet, 
was given to the world. 

The keynote of that philosophy is its definition of 
the relation between the natural and the spiritual. It 
shows that the revelation of God in natural phenomena 
and the revelation of God in the Sacred Scriptures are 
to be interpreted by the same law; a law based on the 
general fact that the natural or phenomenal is always 
and everywhere both the effect and the complete reflec- 
tion of the spiritual. This is Swedenborg’s law of cor- 
respondence, a principle that is becoming widely recog- 
nized in all spiritual philosophy. 

This law makes all Divine revelation, by the very 
necessity of things, a parable. The Divine wisdom can 
be brought down to man only by means of types or sym- 
bols, in which there are meanings above meanings that 
the finite mind can never exhaust; for anything short of 
this would not be a revelation of the Divine wisdom. And 
by the inherent relation of the Divine intelligence to 
human intelligence, this chain of meanings is adapted 
to all the successive grades and conditions of human 
understanding. 

This doctrine of revelation makes the literal sense of 
Scripture, as we find it in our Bible, simply a means or 
instrument for conveying Divine truth in this way to 
human minds, and to all grades and phases of human 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


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comprehension that Divine truth in any form can touch 
and move. This is the Divine purpose that makes the 
Bible just what it is. Every fact stated in the Bible is 
there because it is the best fact to serve this purpose. 
The facts are arranged in just the order in which we find 
them because that is the best order to serve this purpose. 
The forms of expression are just what they are because 
those are the forms that will best serve this purpose. 

This, in brief, is the doctrine or theory of Divine reve- 
lation which the New Church offers to Biblical criticism. 
It is a philosophical doctrine, and it will continue to assert 
itself until it has been fully considered. If it shall be 
found to be out of harmony with the facts, it will be 
silenced. But if it shall be found to be in harmony with 
the facts, the Christian Church will have a verified and 
established doctrine of Divine revelation that will amply 
meet all its needs, doctrinal, philosophical, ethical and 
spiritual. 

This, it seems to me, is the mission of the New Church 
to Biblical criticism, namely, to furnish scientific research 
with the doctrine or theory without which its efforts must 
prove fruitless. Biblical criticism has a great work 
before it. The Bible is a wonderful book; and the more 
it is studied, the more will its wonderful scope and 
structure become evident. Almost as little is now known 
about it as was known about the human body a century 
ago. And as all that science h as been able to teach us about 
the human body tends to confirm more fully, in the light 
of true philosophy, the existence of the soul, so we may 
believe that all that Biblical criticism will be able to teach 
us about the body of the Divine Word will only make 
more clear, in the light of true philosophy, its higher 
meanings, by which the natural thought of man is linked 
to heaven and to the Lord* 


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Y 

THE MISSION OF THE NEW CHURCH TO PHILOSOPHY 
BY THE REV. S. C. EBY, LONDON 

The aim of philosophy is to establish a logical ratio 
between the human mind and- all the objects of its 
thought. Philosophy does not seek to pacify the long- 
ings of the heart. That is the province of religion. 
Neither does 'it endeavor to satisfy man’s thirst for 
knowledge of facts. This is done by science. Nor does 
it mean the fusion of the senses in the intellectual and 
ideal. That is achieved by art. The precise function of 
philosophy is to give such an intellectual apprehension 
of truth as will satisfactorily meet the questions of the 
rational understanding. Without this rational element 
which philosophy is designed to supply, religion, science, 
art, life are unrelated objects of thought. They are in a 
more or less chaotic condition. The true end of philos- 
ophy is to introduce a principle of unity into this unre- 
lated and unordered world of the mind, so that the mind 
may become a veritable microcosm finding in itself a self- 
conscious response to the rhythmic order of a divinely 
governed universal cosmos. 

In the first place, the New Church has a mission to 
philosophy which can be fulfilled only by bringing in the 
element of unification in regard to the Divine and the con- 
flicting aims and speculations of the several schools of 
current philosophy. The New Church is qualified to 
harmonize the different theories by bringing them into 
line with her comprehensive, consistent scheme of 
doctrine. 

By this I do not mean that the New Church adopts 
from the different philosophical systems so much of their 
diverse theorizings as seems to agree with some standard 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


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of truth she has set up. The philosophy of the New 
Church is not electric, not a patchwork of ideas borrowed 
from abroad. What I claim is, that the New Church 
presents a system of rational doctrine which covers the 
whole field explored by the speculative philosophy of the 
past, and applies to the survey a principle of unity which 
co-ordinates the demands made on philosophy in different 
ages of human thought, and answers one set of questions 
without ignoring the existence or denying the importance 
of any other set of questions. 

At one time philosophy was confined almost exclu- 
sively to cosmological questions concerniDg the substance 
of that which exists as a created entity. Reduced to its 
ultimate analysis, the object was to determine what was 
the primal element of nature. One school contended for 
fire, another for water, another for air. Here the mind 
is looking outwardly with the consuming desire to know 
what nature, considered objectively, really is. This is 
at once a very ancient and a very modern tendency of 
the mind. English and French writers and thinkers of 
to-day are as truly seeking a cosmological solution of 
philosophical problems in electricity, magnetism, etc., as 
Thales and Anaximenes were in endeavoring to find it in 
what they conceived to be the primal elements. 

Turning from the thing created, the phenomenon, 
other philosophers have dwelt emphatically on the subject 
of Creator, or the ideal fountain of the real. This 
theological formulation of philosophy is strictly of one 
essential quality, however manifold may be its clothing 
in words. Plato, the Neo-Platonist, the Gnostics, the 
Schoolmen and the theist of to-day, have the same 
motive, — the definition of God as the fountain of life, as 
distinguished from the existence of things manifest. 
The cosmological question is: What are these things of 
which we are conscious, or which we recognize as 


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endowed with objective entity ? The theological question 
is, How did these things come to exist? Who made 
them? 

The third form under which philosophy has appeared 
is the psychological. This is the most vigorous phase of 
modern philosophy and is notably exhibited in the writ- 
ings of Immanuel Kant. Professor Max Muller simply 
voices the feeling of modern serious thinkers when he 
says that if philosophy will make progress it must go 
back to Kant, and learn to know what can and what can- 
not be known. When Professor Wm. James calls his 
survey and summing up of philosophy “Psychology,” he 
aptly reveals the prevailing temper of modern specula- 
tion. The question is not, What is the world? or, Who 
made the world ? But, How do I come to think about 
the world ? That is the absorbing problem. Of course 
both the early Greek philosophers and the schoolmen 
sometimes dwelt on the purely subjective side of their 
questions, but this was always subordinate to other con- 
siderations. As the ancient Greek philosophy was 
cosmological and the Mediaeval philosophy was theological, 
so modern philosophy, dating, say from Des Cartes and 
Locke, is pre eminently psychological. 

I am persuaded that the New Church has a mission 
of incalculable promise and preciousness to philosophical 
thinkers of the present day. She has the rational equip- 
ment that qualifies her to take possession of the field and 
to give that primary instruction concerning the nature of 
the human mind without which all speculative psychology 
must be in vain. The secret lies in the s doctrine of dis- 
crete degrees and its twin doctrine of correspondences. 
Knowledge is not in the first instance acquired by the 
mind voluntarily or self-consciously. All speculations 
concerning the operations of the mind must be futile 
which in any way overlook the objective sources of the 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


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contents of the mind. Hence a psychological philosophy, 
which is not at the same time cosmological and theo- 
logical, is as illogical and unfruitful as one that is 
cosmological or theological and not psychological. The 
New Church does not start the mind on its philosophical 
course, with the Cartesian postulate, “ I think; therefore 
X am.” This is really a superfluous affirmation. The 
existence of one’s subjectivity is a matter of no doubt 
whatever. The question, what is the nature of that sub- 
jectivity? is neither superfluous nor absurd. But it is 
repeatedly affirmed even now that the thought of one’s 
self is the primary thought of philosophy, from which all 
mental development dates. This is an error. The mind 
is formed and furnished from the world with sensuous 
ideas long before it can formulate any maxim of self 
consciousness, such as “ Puto : ergo sum What the mind 
absorbs so easily through the senses answers readily to 
another class of ideas concerning God on the source of 
phenomena. The thought that there is a God and that 
He is one, comes as normally to the mind as the thought 
that things exist and that they are many. 

Now, all knowledge of self, instead of preceding, 
and giving character to man’s knowledge of nature and 
of God, is strictly the fruit of that knowledge of God and 
nature. “Know thyself,” is a command that can be 
obeyed only by degrees, as one comes into the experience 
of things which are natural and principles which are 
Divine, and learns to make them correspond. Ignorance 
of God and nature involves a commensurate ignorance of 
one’s self. There are three clearly defined planes of 
thought, — the lowest, or sensuous, consisting of the 
knowledge of external things; the highest or spiritual, 
consisting of the knowledge of God and of those internal 
things which emanate from God; and the intermediate, 


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or rational, consisting of the knowledge of the corres- 
pondence between the external or sensuous and the 
internal or spiritual. 

The philosophy of the New Church implies revelation. 
Indeed, it makes revelation pre-eminently the conditio 
sine qua non of all rational thought, of all philosophical 
development. It is founded upon a recognition of the 
truth, that the great Creator (as the fountain of life) and 
man (the sum and summit of created things, the image 
and likeness of the Divine) are complementary and 
necessary to each other. God is life itself. Man is not 
life itself, and to the extent that he enjoys life or has it, 
he must receive it, God’s eternal necessity is so to give 
life that the recipient may know it, delight in it, and 
reproduce it. This involves reciprocation as well as 
reception. Hence the problem with God is how to make 
Himself known to man, and progress with man means 
the development of his knowledge of God. “This 
is life eternal, — to know Thee, the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” as the apprehensible 
manifestation and medium of the Divine. In this view 
revelation is no afterthought on God’s part, but an 
essential function of His being. Philosophers, led on by 
a desire to achieve what they conceived to be the libera- 
tion of the intellect, have supposed that they must 
exclude all theological influence. They have desired to 
give the mind independence, leaving it free to excogitate 
from its own resources an adequate and satisfying system 
of rational thought. It has seemed to them that the 
idea of Divine revelation is inseparable from gross and 
carnal dogmas concerning creation and consciousness. 
In thus denying the possibility of Divine enlightenment, 
philosophy has done in the rational world precisely what 
a man would do in the physical world who should 
exclude the light of the sun and depend on his unaided 


Mission of the church 


845 


imagination for a representation of the phenomena of 
the universe. But the philosophy of the New Church 
recognizes the validity of theological questions, and does 
not hesitate to seek to explicate the nature of God. 
Similarly, it perceives that pyschology is the only means 
of understanding man as the recipient of love and 
wisdom from God. 

But again. The New Church acknowledges the per- 
tinence of the cosmological inquiries of philosophy. 
For God (the Giver of the spiritual life of love and 
wisdom) and man (the conscious, joyous recipient and 
reciprocator of that life) can not be imagined as placed 
in juxtaposition without an adequate menstruum to give 
the finite consciousness projectivity from the infinite, and 
to modify and adapt the infinite, for appreciation and 
acceptance on the part of man. For this reason we 
have nature, or the world — the sphere of phenomena 
and the senses. 

It is to the credit of Kant that he demonstrated that 
we can have knowledge only as we have a realm of 
external experience in which to bring to visibility or 
consciousness our a priori intuitions. But he had no 
means of knowing any realm of experience, save the 
physical or sensual. Hence he concluded that all knowl- 
edge is confined to the world of external or sensuous 
phenomena. The spiritual world is a sealed book. The 
philosophy of the New Church recognizes the truth 
involved in Kant’s doctrine, but finds demonstration in 
the writings of the Church that the spiritual world is as 
palpably the realm of sensation and experience as the 
natural world. Swedenborg’s audita et visa are of great 
philosophical significance, and give the truth, that knowl- 
edge depends on experience, which seemed to Kant a 
discovery, a far wider and deeper meaning. Experience 

23 


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on the higher planes of the mind, or in the spiritual 
world, is indispensable to a rational knowledge of God 
and the laws of life; but that experience is possible, 
because the soul has real senses in a real world. No 
one could teach clearly or scientifically the spiritual side 
of truth until some qualified observer and classifier of 
facts could represent things as they are on the planes 
of the spiritual world. This once done by a qualified 
explorer, the knowledge of correspondences would enable 
everjr man born into the experience of the sensuous world 
to advance indefinitely in the theory or doctrine of celes- 
tial planes of existence. It is only as philosophy becomes 
aware of the existence of a spiritual world proceeding 
from and dependent on God, that we become able to 
understand nature. The more nature becomes familiar 
to scientists who are unenlightened by revelation, the 
more inexplicable it becomes to the professional philoso- 
pher. So true is this, that scientists are generally dis- 
posed to drive philosophy, or rational thought concerning 
causes from the field, and to substitute for it an endless 
accumulation and mechanical classification of facts. On 
the other hand, those who have a real instinct for philos- 
ophy are constrained to repudiate science in its pretense 
to be philosophy, and to betake themselves to the expec- 
tation of the processes of the mind. 

But in the New Church nature becomes of paramount 
importance, and cosmology is placed side by side with 
psychology and theology. This is seen in its fullness 
when we study the doctrine of influx, the doctrine of 
degrees, and the doctrine of correspondences. 

The doctrine of influx shows that the creation is not 
accomplished by unintelligible magic or arbitrary fiat, is 
not God’s bringing something out of nothing. But, 
on the contrary, this doctrine shows creation to imply, 
first, the emanation from God (as the infinite substance 


MISSION OP THE CHURCH 


347 


and source of life) of finite planes of substance; and, 
secondly, of life that perpetually operates on and 
through all forms of substance that have come into 
existence. 

The doctrine of degrees shows how the several forms 
of created substance are in different and varying measure 
receptive or non receptive of life. It becomes clear that 
matter is destitute of vitality in its own right. By con- 
sequence, we see it in its mineral form in a condition 
where life has been so completely eliminated from it 
that it is suited to become the skeleton of a superimposed 
living creation. Plant and animal are the fruit of the 
creative endeavor to clothe this mineral framework with 
flesh. The same series of degrees repeats itself in the 
spiritual world, where again we have natural, spiritual 
and celestial, answering to the three kingdoms of nature. 
Spiritual substance must be thought of as truly as physi- 
cal; heavenly or hellish forms are as clearly thinkable as 
natural, sensuous forms. The wide varieties and ascend- 
ing scale of manifestation of life in nature make very 
clear the possibility and necessity of the manifold degrees, 
discrete and continuous, of the forms of life in the 
spiritual world. 

The doctrine of correspondences shows that each 
plane answers to the one above it as an effect, and to 
the one below it as a cause. It makes the spiritual world 
the true cause of the natural, and the end of nature to 
furnish an alphabet and vocabulary to the soul, whereby 
through things external and sensuous it can come to know 
things internal and spiritual. The rational meaning of 
nature is understood only when it is seen to be the basic 
plane of what is created, and thus the prepared object 
of the mind’s operations when it is first stimulated to 
action. 


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NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


Thus, the theological, cosmological and psychological 
aspects of philosophy are seen to be parts of a unified 
system of thought. 

The New Church has a mission to philosophy in 
reference to the relation subsisting between science and 
Religion. Philosophy accomplishes its end only as it 
introduces unity among the contents of the mind. Reli- 
gion is the outcome of man’s nature as related to the 
supersensuous sphere of his consciousness; science is the 
fruit of his effort to become happily related to the world 
without him. Natural Religion (or Religion not yet made 
spiritual) is full of bigotry, exclusiveness, vindictiveness, 
Pharisaism and superstition. Natural science (that is 
science not yet adjusted to spiritual uses) is shallow, 
vapory, noisy, intolerant, pretentious, culinary and mer- 
cen ary. Between these two phases of human development 
there must necessarily be perpetual war, unless one is 
subjected to the other, so long as they remain carnal and 
unredeemed. The New Church is qualified by her philo- 
sophical or rational truths to take natural Religion and 
expurgate it, and natural science and exalt it to heavenly 
uses. 

The perusal of a work like Frederick Denison Mau- 
rice’s “Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy,” brings 
the conviction that the most learned and devout mind is 
unable to frame a consistent philosophy founded on the 
literal interpretation of scriptural verities. Only a 
recognition of the fact of the external and internal planes 
of the mind, and of the correspondence between the 
outward phenomena of nature and the spiritual plane of 
ideas above and within it, can furnish a point of view 
from which to study with rational satisfaction the subject 
of Divine Revelation, and of man’s relation to God, 
together with nature’s place in that relationship. If 
the mind has its sensuous plane contiguous but not 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


349 


continuous with the spiritual, — if nature has its sensuous 
plane contiguous but not continuous with a spiritual 
plane above it, then Divine Revelation, in order to 
reveal anything, necessarily implies two planes and two 
messages, — one addressed to the sensuous mind, and 
one addressed to the spiritual; a letter couched in the 
appearances of nature, and an inner spirit clothed with 
the light of heaven. The philosophy of the New Church 
is simply rational thought agreeing with the truths of 
the internal sense of the Word. By consequence, it 
stands on the vantage ground of heavenly wisdom, and 
is able to comprehend in one survey all that belongs to 
the religious and all that belongs to the scientific develop- 
ment of the human mind. Religion and science are seen 
to be as necessary to each other as the heart and lungs 
in the body, or the cerebellum and cerebrum in the brain. 
Only science can aerate and purify the natural religious 
consciousness; only Religion can vitalize and sanctify the 
scientific faculties. No controversy exists between 
science and Religion when they are both exalted out of 
the carnal and earthly, and established in the clear light 
of the spiritual and heavenly. 

The mission of the New Church to philosophy 
involves also the establishment of a just relationship 
between metaphysics and the conduct of life. 

To most men philosophy has seemed a dry and barren 
subject. Philosophers have done much to confirm this 
prejudice; for they have been led by the conceit of self - intel- 
ligence to the separation of themselves and their work 
from the ordinary, healthful activities and purposes and 
sentiments of men in the world. On the other hand, 
the so-called practical man has been satisfied with external 
affairs, and has overlooked the value of philosophy, sup- 
posing it to be the occupation or amusement of men 
devoted to unfruitful theorizing. The philosophy of the 


850 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


New Church is the theory or doctrine of the practical. 
“I believe that to be deepest philosophy,” said Maurice, 
“which underlies the business of life and explains it.” 
The New Church enlarges the sphere of the mind’s 
theorizing, and invites men to a larger apprehension of 
the practical. It enters into every department of our 
common life and furnishes a philosophical foundation for 
all our experiences. It shows the reason, the use, the 
standard, the limit of all common things. Art, work, 
politics, society, marriage, education, recreation have a 
thoroughly philosophical explication and defense. New- 
Church philosophy is fully qualified to redeem the mind 
from every form of atheism, pessimism and sensualism, 
and to create it anew, formed and furnished with the 
wisdom of heavenly life. Thus metaphysics becomes 
the most practical and fruitful pursuit of the mind, for 
it means the bringing of the spiritual meaning and motive 
down into the actual, that so the tabernacle of God may 
be with men. 


VI 

THE MISSION OF THE NEW CHURCH TO THE HISTORIAN 

BY THE REV. PHILIP B. CABELL, A. M. 

The Roman historian, Livy, in his admirable preface 
mentions two conspicuous advantages to be derived 
from the study of history — namely, first , the examples 
which it furnishes of human lives, admirable or detest- 
able; and, second , the essential aid which such study 
gives in the conduct of states and governments. 

Biographies of the great and good are unquestion- 
ably of great value in educating the young, and a knowl- 
edge of the heroic deeds of former generations affords a 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


351 


healthful stimulus to the patriotic exertions of the 
present one. The leaders and statesmen of every age do 
undoubtedly profit by the wisdom of their predecessors, 
whether gained by success or by failure, and perhaps 
there is no class of students who profit more by historic 
lore than they. In general we may say that these two 
lessons, the moral and the political, the historian gener- 
ally has in mind to teach and his readers to learn. 

With Christianity, however, there springs up a new 
class of events of which the classic author mentioned 
had no knowledge, and which, taking their rise from 
confessedly supernatural causes and influences, required 
separate record from the beginning, adding also new 
motives and objects for historic composition and study. 
Ecclesiastical or church history, owing to the spiritual or 
supernatural element in it, is of peculiar value, in that it 
invites to the study of causes as well as of events. How 
this element of advantage works shall presently be 
explained. 

It is true that the histories of religious movements 
and of churches abound in admirable biographies of 
characters well worthy of imitation, and that they furnish 
account of some detestable lives, thus teaching moral les- 
sons of a higher and nobler kind than any record of 
purely secular import. It is true also that the experience 
of those who have governed churches, and the effects of 
various forms of ecclesiastical policy, furnish most valu- 
able instruction for those who would intelligently and 
conscientiously perform those uses at the present day; 
but the study of Church history, and indeed of all history, 
sacred ecclesiastical, political and profane, is capable 
of elevation by a whole degree of profitableness and 
importance. 

The contemplation of historical events (which in them- 
selves are only effects), while fixing in the mind the mere 


352 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


order of their occurrence, is an exercise bewildering in 
the extreme, burdening the mind with an endless succes- 
sion of names and dates, and soon palling upon the 
most acquisitive appetite for such knowledge. But hap- 
pily there has of late years, by advanced thinkers, been 
introduced into historical study new methods, attended 
by ever-increasing profit and delight on the part of 
teachers and learners. Of these new methods, the most 
important and efficient is the study of causes above 
mentioned. 

The modern historian who adopts this method revels 
in discovery. He delights to trace the origin of any 
given movement, political, moral or religious, back to its 
fountain-head in some new idea, whether it be a mechan- 
ical invention, a political principle, or a revealed truth, 
and to see how it has spread and worked like a thing of 
life, moulding men and events to suit itself, long after 
the supposed author or original inventor has passed from 
the stage of this life. 

Now ideas, which are inventions, principles of action 
or of government, and abstract truths of various kinds, 
belong wholly to the region of causes. Their discovery 
and propagation furnish a simple key to thousands of 
historical events otherwise of little interest. 

To this method of study we owe the discovery of the 
now generally recognized fact that the current of history 
is a sort of evolution; that one age seems to be born of 
another, and in its turn seems to beget a new order of 
things wholly distinct from its own, yet plainly owing its 
origin to what has gone before. Take any of those institu- 
tions, industries, arts or sciences, which together make 
up the wonderful complex of our modern social fabric, 
and it may be traced back to some small beginning, ten, 
fifty or a hundred years ago. And to do this tracing 
skillfully and well is one of the most pleasing and helpful 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


353 


tasks of the historian, one which raises him far above the 
level of the mere chronicler of events. He is the student 
of causes, and to this particular phase of historic composi- 
tion and study the doctrines and revelations of the New 
Church furnish most efficient aid. To the historian of 
causes the New Church has a mission indeed, but espec- 
ially to him who would devote himself to one great 
class of causal influences, that, indeed, which is soon to 
be recognized as the only class worthy that name — 
namely, the workings of the Divine Providence in the 
affairs of men. To see the hand of God in history is the 
inestimable privilege which the new revelation grants as 
no other revelation has granted before. 

This we should expect. These writings reveal the 
spiritual world, which is the world of causes, lying every- 
where prone upon this natural world, which is in itself one 
vast theater of effects. The causal world inhabits nature 
as a man’s soul inhabits his body. Most powerfully does 
it environ human life and human activity, suggesting 
the thoughts, animating the desires and prompting all 
the actions of men, they retaining only the freedom of 
choice between good and evil, and between wisdom and 
folly. 

To know how men act and re- act upon each other, to 
study the lives of great men and good, are indeed 
valuable privileges, but to know the influences which act 
upon men from above and within, independently of their 
natural surroundings, to gain some knowledge of the 
purposes for which heroes and great men are raised up, 
and to what end they are inspired, this were a privilege 
indeed, and this is what an acquaintance with the New 
Church and her teaching grants in wonderful degree. 
For not only do those writings tell us of spiritual causes, 
as the means by which the Creator works out His 


354 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


beneficent designs for the good of men, but they reveal to 
us with a clearness never before vouchsafed, the very 
end and purpose of human existence. 

For example: What a sublime truth is that here for 
the first time fully made known, that the sole object or 
end of the creation of the universe and of man upon it, 
was the formation of a heaven out of the human race! 
When once possessed of this marvelous piece of informa- 
tion, the historian, taken so far, as it were, into the con- 
fidence of his Maker, cannot fail of a more exalted concep- 
tion of the excellence of his office. How easy is it, then, for 
him to see the hand of the Divine Providence working to 
that mighty and merciful end in all the strange histories 
of the past ! He looks upon his brethren of the race with 
new interest, as the favored yet singularly wayward 
children of some beneficent power, whose boundless 
wisdom and untiring love will one day in spite of their 
waywardness and folly yet accomplish for them and 
through them all that was originally intended. 

Another statement equally pregnant with meaning is 
that without a true Church somewhere in earth, pos- 
sessing through revelation a knowledge of the true God, 
the human race would lose all connection with heaven 
and would thus perish, because the true Church acts as a 
heart and lungs to the great body of mankind, which 
actually stands before the Lord as one Grand Man, a 
maximus homo. In this statement the historian finds 
explanation rational and full of all the mysteries of 
sacred history, of the selection of the otherwise unworthy 
descendants of Abraham and Jacob to perform a certain 
office for the good of mankind, causing them for a time 
to appear and to believe themselves the favorites of heaven. 

This also explains why Christianity was for so many 
ages confined to Europe, and accounts in great measure 
for the mysterious superiority of Christian nations over all 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


355 


others, a superiority which they derive from the presence 
among them of God’s written W ord. The power, neverthe- 
less, which such superiority brings, the nations now Chris- 
tian are likely to lose unless they make wise use of it, in 
living righteously themselves, and assisting others to do 
the same. This lesson all history, both sacred and 
profane, teaches, if it teaches no other. 

Again; what a significant historical fact is that 
revealed in these marvelous volumes, that from the 
beginning there have been four Churches upon the earth, 
the Adamic, the Noetic, the Israelitish and the Christian, 
respectfully corresponding to and synchronous with the 
infancy, the childhood, the manhood and the old age of 
the human race, which would have gone out in the 
gloom of winter and of night unless by the Divine mercy 
it were permitted and enabled even now to enter upon a 
new and everlasting age whose glories are unspeakable 
and whose perfection shall be greater than those of the 
Eden days. 

The Second or New Christian Church we are assured 
will be the crown of all churches, because it will worship 
the one only and true God, visible to the mind in 
human form; and because the race has now attained 
to a state of advanced rationality, that can enter intelli- 
gently into the mysteries of faith. By this means it will 
also, in time, acquire the innocence of wisdom such as 
now only the angels enjoy. 

But descending from these sublime generalities which, 
though historic in themselves, are to the historian as 
much a matter of revelation as they are to us, we may 
now briefly allude to some of those particulars which 
belong more properly to his province, and which in the 
light of the New-Church teachings it will be his privilege 
and delightful task to interpret. These particulars are of 
course the recorded facts of history, ancient and modern. 


356 


NEW- CHURCH CONGKESS 


Intelligent historians, adopting as one of their 
methods the study of cause and effect, have already per- 
ceived that many movements and events of the past were 
directed to the attainment of certain ends clearly of the 
Divine Providence. Thus it has long ago been discov 
ered that the coming of our Lord the Savior into the 
world was an epoch or pivotal event, breaking up an old 
order of things and ushering in one entirely new. The 
birth of Christ is an era to the unbelieving historian as 
well as to the believing Church. To that mighty event 
the ancient world seems to look forward for deliverance 
from encroaching evil, and all subsequent history looks 
back to it as the source and spring of all that is of good- 
ness and wisdom among men. As a preparation for the 
coming Savior, sacred records clearly show that the Jew- 
ish Church and polity were instituted, and after captivity 
restored; historic proof of which is seen in the fact that 
so soon as the Advent was accomplished, and the infant 
Church established first among the remnant of that peo- 
ple and had gained a footing with the Gentiles, Jewish 
nationality and Jewish worship at Jerusalem forever 
passed away. The thoughtful reader of history also per- 
ceived that for the wider reception of the truths of Chris- 
tianity the Greek philosophy and learning were intended ; 
one outward evidence of which is that the books of the 
New Testament were written in Greek. Moreover can any 
one suppose that the translation of the Old Testament 
from Hebrew into Greek, by the seventy sages, and by 
order of a heathen Egyptian king several centuries before 
our era, was a mere matter of chance and not a part of 
the worlds preparation for the Redeemer yet to come ? 

Equally evident is it to the believing mind that with- 
out the instrumentality of the Roman Empire the Chris- 
tian system would, humanly speaking, never have been 
taken from the exclusive custody of Jews and Greeks 


Mission of the church 357 

and been allowed to extend its beneficent influences to 
the then known world. To rewrite the history of the five 
hundred years which preceded the Christian era, and of 
an equal period following, and to do this in the light of 
this new revelation of ours, is a task of wonder and of 
love which some devout historian will yet have the honor 
and the delightful privilege to perform. 

But in supplying the true interpretation to modern 
history, in wisely digesting and arranging the voluminous 
records of those centuries which have elapsed since the 
discovery of the art of printing, in the intelligent 
grouping of those stirring events which have occurred 
since Europe awoke from the sleep of the dark ages, and 
especially in showing the connection of these with two 
mighty events in the world of causes, asserted to have 
taken place there by the doctrines of the New Church, — 
in all this lies the most important and practical mission 
of the New Church to the historian. 

These two events the reader of these writings will 
recognize as the Second Coming of the Lord and the 
Last Judgment , which attended it, which latter took 
place, according to Emanuel Swedenborg, in the spiritual 
world in the year 1757. 

The Second Coming of the Lord was, or is an event 
as necessary to the salvation of the world as was His 
First Coming, and yet by reason of the fact that it is 
a coming, not in person, but in spirit, it was a movement 
far more perceptible at the time in the spiritual world, 
or world of causes, than it was here in the natural world 
of effects. There it was attended with all those portents 
and disturbances among the wicked which the language 
of prophecy describes, here the first and most import- 
ant visible effect was the revelation and publication of 
the spiritual sense of the Word contained in the writings 
of the New Church. Yet since the date of the Last 


358 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


Judgment, a change has come over the world and in the 
spiritual condition of mankind, no less remarkable than 
that described as having taken place in those regions of 
the world of causes lying next to us. 

This modern age of ours every intelligent mind 
recognizes as new. It is obvious that a sun of light and 
love has risen upon the world somewhere, though 
invisible to men’s natural eyes. This is a morning time 
in which we live, whose direct solar rays may be hidden 
from most minds by the clouds of prejudice and error, 
but whose diffused light all perceive and acknowledge. 

But there was never a morning without its daybreak 
and its twilight of dawn. Assuming the truth of Sweden - 
borg’s assertions concerning the Last Judgment, that it 
is a historic fact, and pursuing the analogy of ancient 
history interpreted in the light of the Lord’s First Coming, 
we infer that as the incarnation was preceded by a prep- 
aration to make the first advent effective of its purpose, so 
the Second Advent would, like a coming sun, be heralded 
by historical events and changes, indicative of it and 
preparatory for it. Among these causal agencies, which 
are supposed by some to have ushered in the new age, 
but which were given from heaven to make its blessings 
permanent and world- wide, we may mention three: 

1st. — The Art of Printing, 

2d. — The Discovery of Gunpowder, 

3d. — The Mariner’s Compass. 

Without the printing press the truths of the new age, 
which are those of the Holy Word and its internal sense, 
would never have been spread abroad, and as a prepara- 
tion for these we should never have had the revival of 
learning, the Deformation, or that wide diffusion of 
education and knowledge, which civilization now enjoys. 

It is to gunpowder, humanly speaking, that the world 
owes its emancipation from the cruel oppressions of the 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


359 


past. By putting men on physical equality, it set free 
the weak from the power of the strong, and forever 
dethroned brute force from that seat of insolent advantage 
it had so long enjoyed and abused. As Mr. Carlyle glee- 
fully observes concerning the pistol bullet, “That was the 
invention which everywhere made the little David 
equal to the big Giant.” To the very destructiveness of 
the implements of modern warfare the world is likely 
soon to owe the general cessation, by mutual agreement, 
of war itself; and what more delightful theme for the 
historian than the origin and progress of a change so 
desirable ? 

And, lastly, without the mariner’s compass, we should 
never have known this glorious American Continent which 
had lain for so long hidden in the sea, the future home 
of liberty and learning, and, let us hope, of the Church 
that is to be. Placed in the hands of that bold navigator, 
this implement so wonderful, yet so small, invented just 
at the right time, made possible all that we see and hear 
around us. Followed as it was soon by steam and elec- 
tricity, and following as it did the invention of the 
printing press, the mariner’s compass, we may say, was 
one efficient cause which created modern commerce, 
which brought all lands into proximity and all nations 
into one neighborhood, making necessary and probable 
these exhibitions of the industries of all the world, and 
(shall we say it?) this Parliament of Religions which we 
do now attend. 

Yet it is not any single invention, or any thousand 
inventions that can ip one or two centuries change the 
face of the civilized world. The moving cause which lies 
behind the change was expressed in the first sentence 
that was sent from Washington to Baltimore over the 
electric wire, “Behold! What hath God wrought.” 


860 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


It will be a glorious day for the world when all men 
shall be able to see the guiding hand of Providence in its 
own history, and when blind chance or an unfeeling 
fate shall no more be thought of as an element entering 
into the warp and woof of events past, present or to come. 

In the sending of blessed inventions from heaven just 
at the time when they are needed; in the multiplication 
of industries to afford healthful employment to the mill- 
ions ; in the ever increasing resources of nature to sustain 
an ever increasing population; in the cessation of wars; 
in the now almost universal prevalence of the American 
doctrine that “ All government is for the good of the gov- 
erned;” in the raising up of a great man here and of a 
hero there, to accomplish certain desirable ends; in all 
these the historian of the future will be able more and 
more clearly to see the Divine hand working to one great 
end, the establishment in freedom according to reason of 
a new and glorious and universal Church, which shall be 
in a natural world without end, the perpetual seminary of 
heaven ! 

To trace out all this and to teach it to men will be the 
delightful task of the historian that is to be. And to 
enable him efficiently to perform it, surely the New 
Church has a mission. 


YII 

THE MISSION OF THE NEW CHURCH TO LITERATURE 

BY THE REV. T. F. WRIGHT, PH. D. 

It was wisely said at the dedication of the public 
library, that such an institution “contains the diary of the 
human race.” It is certainly true that the field of litera- 
ture is that of human thought so far as it has recorded 
itself in papyrus or parchment or clay or stone or book. 


Mission OF THE CHURCH 


361 


To define the mission of the New Church to literature it 
is only necessary to tell what is its bearing upon the lit- 
erature of the age with which it connects itself. It 
should be understood, however, that the books of any 
generation not only exhibit the distinct progress of that 
generation in the onward movement of new thought and 
discovery, but also indicate the changed views which may 
have come to be held in regard to all that has gone 
before. ‘‘There is no past so long as books shall live,” is 
Bulwer Lytton’s sounding phrase, and it not only tells 
the truth that the past surrounds us in our libraries, but 
it suggests that manj^ books of the present are simply new 
views of the past, so that the whole field seems to be 
always open, almost as if never hitherto explored. A 
new point of view leads to the production of new books 
quite as much as a new discovery, or an event in poli- 
tics, and, if the New Church has a mission to literature, 
it will lead to the production of new books as well as the 
writing of old ones and the rehandling of old themes. I 
have therefore to note here, not only certain new lines of 
literary work, but certain others in which less original but 
equally faithful work may be done, and in a most inter- 
esting and hopeful degree is doing. It will be found 
here, as in other aspects of this great subject, that, under 
the Divine Providence, such fruit of the New Age has 
already been borne that I need not speak in the future 
tense, as if attempting to be prophetic, but may to some 
extent, chronicle as ground for heartfelt gratitude what 
has already been accomplished, so far as a limited acquaint- 
ance with the subject, which fell to me through an 
exchange of topics for another’s sake, may enable me to 
speak. 

Literature has been variously divided for purposes 
of library classification. An ingenious and generally 

24 


862 NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 

accepted division makes nine principal classes, each of 
which is then further divided into nine, and each of them 
again into nine; but for the present purpose it will be 
sufficient to pass rapidly over the leading divisions and 
to note only a part of the major subdivisions. The great 
divisions are theology, philosophy, sociology, philology, 
natural science, useful arts, fine arts, history and belles- 
lettres. 

In the field of theology only the Bible is eternal and 
unchangeable: “ My words shall not pass away.” But, 
while the Word of God does not lose one jot or tittle, the 
books written for the purpose of interpreting and apply- 
ing it receive a new inspiration from the opening of the 
spiritual meaning by the explanation of the correspond 
ence of spiritual objects with natural, causing a transfer 
of the point of view from the material to the spiritual 
plane. Judaism was a Religion of external rites, the 
significance of which was not understood by the people. 
Christianity is a genuine Religion of the heart and mind, 
but in the hands of men of material thought it sank so 
far towards Judaism that resurrection was supposed to 
involve a restoration of the physical body, that redemp- 
tion was supposed to have been the paying of God’s 
price for His clemency, that the promises of the Lord’s 
Second Coming were given an earthly meaning as to the 
destruction of this world, and that the Divine trinal 
nature was spoken of as if three Divine beings, having 
each one his mind and his duty, occupied as many 
thrones. 

As to all the enormous mass of literature produced by 
monk aud legalist and commentator, the mission of the 
New Church was to judge it and essentially to modify it. 
The mighty volumes of scholasticism would become mainly 
monuments of human toil in darkness. The institutes of 
Calvin, the treatises of Arminius and their fellows would 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


363 


be laid aside in favor of a literature which would have 
its source in its recognition of the living Christ. Com- 
mentaries from a dogmatic point of view, must go quickly 
to the rear in favor of such as closely and clearly embod- 
ied the results of examination of the text itself. A new 
class of books must arise, namely, studies of our Lord’s 
life, and these when made by such unbiased students as 
Geikie and Edersheim and Farrar and many others of 
less note, would reach a wider circle of readers than had 
ever been reached by theological works before. The 
spirit of careful scientific research was to arise and put 
aside the treated discussions of partisans. The study 
of the text of the Bible, the exploration of Bible lands 
in order to ascertain the exact meaning of words, and 
the whole development of Biblical as distinguished from 
dogmatic theology were called for in the new light. 
Instead of the barrenness of mediaeval theology with its 
negative tendency under its system of last things by 
which the world would end, of creation from nothing in 
six days, and of natural catastrophes attributed to Divine 
wrath, scientific theology must assume its true place as the 
helpmeet of rationally interpreted revelation, and must 
furnish a luminous fundamental corroboration of dogmatic 
theology such as is foreshadowed in Professor Drum- 
mond’s “Natural Law in the Spiritual World.’’ Natural 
theology thus rises to a new dignity and serviceableness, 
and no longer utters the rebelliousness of reason against 
irrational dogmas. The work of Professor Shaler on 
“ The Interpretation of Nature,” is distinctly prophetic in 
this same direction, and there is developing from the pens 
of adequately instructed scientists, acting in perfect liberty, 
a literature of natural theology only possible under the 
new light. A new literature has also sprung up under 
the heads of “ Progressive Orthodoxy ” and “ The New 
Theology,” with reference to the redemption and 


364 NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 

eschatology, while the subject of the spiritual world opens 
for the first time to clear thought. 

There have been devotional books before, but it 
waoted the clear sense of the Divine presence in the 
Christ to beget a fresh hymnology, to bring worship into 
the language of the common people, and to open the 
door for books of sermons, not controversial, but nutri- 
tious and uplifting. Minor books of pastoral theology, 
consoling the afflicted, offering daily readings, and 
guiding the mind to devotion, were, too, brought into 
being. The whole work of church history was to be done 
again. Without unreasonable condemnation of all that 
had been done with much labor before, larger views were 
to be taken. There were to be less pursuit of every little 
parting of the stream about some heretical rock, and a 
broader outlook of the entire current. Especially must 
the ostensibly just but really partisan and indicatory 
work of the church historian come to an end. 

Thus books as to sects must be re-written in a more 
generous spirit, and the Gentile systems must be treated 
without contempt or hatred. Carefully examining all 
that claimed to be true, the discriminating critic must 
apply a higher test than his inherited prejudices, and 
must address a larger reading circle than that of his 
partisan sympathizers. An entirely new literature, — that 
of Christian missions, must be developed and must take 
the place of the former anathemas. Men must learn 
how to adapt sympathetic teaching to all races, must 
give over their attempts to force tritheistic conceptions 
upon the Gentile monotheists, and must learn to address 
them with respect, and to instruct them upon the basis 
of what they already know of truth, however little. 

Thus the whole field of theological literature receives a 
new light, and it is no wonder that the production of such 
books has become nearly, or quite the most numerous. 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


365 


In the thinking of thinking, as Hegel tersely and cor- 
rectly described it, there was much work in the past 
which is not of great virtue at present, but no reader of 
the history of philosophy can have failed to notice the 
distinct effort of fundamental thinking to free itself from 
its dogmatic slumber (to use Kant’s appropriate phrase), 
and to seize upon a firm basis of mental analysis. This 
was found in a recognition of the spirit, in a rational 
idealism. In spite of all the vagaries which prevailed in 
the Romantic School of Fichte and Schell ing and the 
Schlegels and Novalis, we cannot deny that they labored 
for the transcendance of the spirit over the flesh, and that 
the outcome of the storm and stress was more intelli- 
gent and more resolute thinking for humanity. When 
Swedenborg was born in 1688, philosophy had formed 
three schools, — the skeptical, represented by Hume and 
Hobbs, the mystical, of Eckhart and Behmen, and the 
moralist of Cudworth and Shaftesbury. Descarts and 
Bacon and Spinoza and Locke and Leibnitz had labored ; 
Kant and Hegel and Jonathan Edwards and Lotze were 
to enter into those labors^ and do new work. As Pro- 
fessor Seth says in his volume “From Kant to Hegel,” 
“Hegel restored spirit to its place.” 

While in the present generation, the old is constantly 
reappearing in skepticism or pantheism or theosophic 
magianism, yet there is a slow upbuilding of a truly 
spiritual philosophy, based upon a carefully ascertained 
psychology. 

At the same time a new field has opened in the intel- 
ligent application of philosophy to the dealings of men 
with each other. In politics we have an increasing recog- 
nition of the rights of every man, while in the former 
time, only one man was free in a nation, and he was the 
sovereign. In political economy, the hard and fast sel- 
fishness which formerly was its principle has now yielded. 


300 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


thanks to the urgent and partially successful theorizing 
of Spencer and George and others, to a more humane sys- 
tem. The laborer is no longer dumb, the people are no 
longer satisfied with “bread and games,” libraries are 
public, education is for all, speech is free, represen- 
tation of all in the legislature is recognized more and more 
fully; the wage earner’s savings are cared for, and a home 
is within his reach; parks for wholesome recreation are 
provided, and such institutions as homes for orphans, for 
defectives and for the fallen testify to the high value now 
placed upon every human life. The development of fra- 
ternal orders has created a large literature also. Books 
on the regulation of trade now appear. Travelers’ tales 
are no longer records of mere exploits, but are intelligent 
studies of the customs and capacities of remote nations 
and of the production of their territories. And, in all 
this, we may see the working out of the new wisdom, the 
descent of the Holy City of four sides and twelve gates. 

In the department of education we have to note a 
development as remarkable as in any. The methods of 
education had been in the last degree unnatural and 
unsuccessful; but through the prophetic mission of 
Pestalozzi and Froebel and all their successors and 
imitators, we have new text books of marvelous adaptation 
and methods still better than the books; and no one can 
read what is said in the work on “ Heaven and Hell” as 
to the education of those who pass into the other life in 
infancy, without seeing that our best methods are the 
simple transfer to earth of the ways of heaven. Till the 
New Age had opened, there were no books for little 
children, but now no class of readers is better provided 
for. Till then the blind could not read, but now they 
have a full literature. Till then newspapers availed 
little, but now they help to educate every household. 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


367 


The comparative study of languages has formed a 
department of its own. The recognition of their common 
roots and principles has led the way to a more just 
appreciation of man’s development than was had before. 
The study of hieroglyphs has opened the minds of 
scholars to admit a general symbolism and to find in the 
world of matter a counterpart of the world of thought. 
Attempts, so far unsuccessful, have been made to con 
struct or compile a universal language, and this may yet 
be done; but it will result, if at all, from a perception of 
the innate speech of common emotions and affirmations 
rather than from an adaptation, like Volapiik, of one 
language with arbitrary additions. 

The literature of natural science can be summarily 
remarked upon, because in our era it has grown to its 
strength. Astronomy has thrown off its astrology, — 
chemistry has put away its alchemy, and the truly 
scientific has been everywhere developed. A new spirit 
has come into science, — a spirit having no fear of priestly 
prosecution, a spirit of thorough and unbiased research, 
recording its observations with patience and printing 
volumes of monumental industry. Men have gained a 
true respect for nature; they no longer worship it, but 
they do it no violence. Every object of animal or vege- 
table or mineral life has become precious. Museums 
have been made the deposits of instructive specimens, 
and some knowledge of science is found essential to the 
theologian, the lawyer and the statesman. While 
theology was utterly unscientific in its cosmology and 
eschatology, it was natural that science should, in turn, 
be contemptuously skeptical, but now that theology 
grows rational science becomes reverent, and the athe- 
istical scientist is already behind the times. The work of 
the specialist in science makes very little display, but the 
books which he produces after many years of toil do him 


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NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


honor and foretell the approach of a general recognition 
that all matter corresponds to spirit. Swedenborg was 
no dreamer, but a thorough scientist in metallurgy and 
human physiology, and an inventor of useful appliances, 
and his science was the basis of his theological enlight- 
enment. We shall yet see marvelous wisdom in men of 
strictly scientific pursuits, while men of mere book 
learning will lose their pre-emimence in literature. 

Of all the books that have been produced under the 
impulse of the New Age in the department of useful arts, 
it is impossible to speak adequately. There was already 
much done in architecture, but homes were cheerless; yet 
now the books show how fully skillful minds have devoted 
themselves to the improvement, for the sake of the family 
and especially of the children, of domestic architecture. 
Agriculture was always a dignified employment, but it 
now has become scientific and professional. The books 
on navigation, the telegraph and telephone, on food and 
fuel and house furnishing and domestic economy in gen- 
eral, on engineering and manufactures and therapeutic 
agencies testify of the new zeal for making all things 
promote the welfare of man. The whole business in con- 
nection with patents, shows what has been done to make 
man the master of the universe. 

Into the department of fine arts has come a new 
spirit, which is slowly ultimating itself in all the higher 
forms of architecture, in the adornment of public parks, 
in the preservation of scenery, and in a very general 
diffusion of artistic taste through school methods of art 
culture and through public museums. In music, with a 
large development of instruments, there has been also a 
hearkening to nature in composition which has given 
power to modern dramatic music. It is singular that the 
drama has gained as yet no perceptible benefit except 
from Wagner, but it may be that it waits for the 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


369 


recognition of those whose wealth can endow a righteous 
and effective theatre, which can never exist while the 
stage is devoted only to that which pays. 

It is in the field of history that we see a strongly 
marked improvement under the impulse of the New Age. 
Biography has now become a rich department, and the 
life- stories of true men and women are studied as never 
before. The entire field of archaeological research has been 
entered upon for the first time in a truly scientific spirit, 
and the result already is a vast accumulation of monu- 
ments which had been buried, and inscriptions which had 
been lost to sight. We are “heirs of all the ages,” as 
our fathers were not. From the height of our present 
interest in all that pertains to human life, we look far 
back over the whole distance which man has traversed, 
and our knowledge is to grow more full and distinct until 
the hidden things shall be revealed that we may “build 
the old waste places and raise up the foundations of many 
generations.” In this and in all historical work there is 
seen less regard than formerly for the exploits of great 
men and the conflicts of great armies and more regard for 
the fate and fortune of the common man as he has been 
affected by events. Thus archaeology is studied for the 
sake of ethnology, and ethnology for the sake of ascer- 
taining the lines of most noble and successful human life. 
It is found that human history is the history of Keligions 
and that it is impossible to study the human past from 
any other point of view with success. Thus we are led 
straight to that interpretation of the Word of God which 
shows it to be an account of man in all his periods. 
Histories of philosophy have lately been made for the 
purpose of getting a clear view of the evolution of man’s 
mind. 

I have purposely reserved to the last place that depart- 
ment which in libraries is classed as literature proper 


370 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


or belles-lettres, and which includes works on folk-lore, 
essays of a critical or summary character, fiction of the 
unhistorical type, occasional addresses and the produc- 
tions of humorists. If poetry be classed in this depart- 
ment, it is its most important part, for true poetry is 
always interpretative of nature and always finds human 
analogies in lower things. Epic poetry had reached 
great perfection in the far past, but our era has developed 
a higher form of lyric poetry in Wordsworth and 
Tennyson, and some Americans. Fiction has become 
very acute in its delineation of human life of all kinds, 
and has acquired with many a distinctly religious tone. 
It is here, as in the case of the drama, that commercialism 
seems to have . held back the development of a most 
effective means of edification. The writers of fiction, 
thus urged on by material motives, tend to a remarkably 
general decline in power and reputation, so that their 
first works are their best. While some have effectively 
used our teachings in constructing noble romances, yet, 
as a rule, fiction waits to be raised to that standard of 
child life and adult life and especially of married life 
which our principles clearly set forth. 

Under this head I would enumerate, in closing, certain 
books issued within this century, and showing the new 


spirit: 

1830 Ly ell’s Geology 

1833 Agassiz’s Fossil Fishes 

1846 Grote’s Greece 

1856 Lotze’s Microcosm 

1861 Muller’s Lectures on Language 

1871 The Recovery of Jerusalem 

(By Wilson and Warren.) 

1880 Wallace’s Ben-Hur 

1880 Geikie’s Life of the Christ • 

1883 Drummond’s Natural Law in the 

Spiritual World. 

1889 Le Conte’s Evolution and Its 


Relation to Religious Thought, 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


371 


Of the books issued by our own people I find but 
one of general reputation: Grindon’s “ Life; Its Nature, 
Varieties and Phenomena,” which appeared in 1875. 

As the early light at dawn catches the mountain tops, 
so some men have caught the light of the new day, 
which in due time will shine for many more, though that 
time is not yet. The Mission of the New Church to 
Literature is to illumine it and to inspire it with the 
zeal and purity and wisdom which are felt in the pres- 
ence of the Lord. At present we must gratefully recog- 
nize the “cheerful dawn.” With the poet, we behold, — 
Hues of the rich unfolding morn, 

That, ere the glorious sun be born, 

By some soft touch invisible, 

Around his path are taught to swell. — Keble. 


VIII 

THE MISSION OF THE NEW CHURCH TO ART 

BY SIG. LORETO SCOCIA 
[Translated by Alice Archer Sewall . ] 

Art, as it is generally defined, is an ability acquired 
by practice of working with the reason, or according to 
the internal laws of any material. Art, therefore, com- 
prehends in its fullest significance all the exercises of the 
mind and of the hand of man, exercises more or less 
noble and refined. Whence the distinction between the 
mechanical and the fine arts, or those which demand a 
rare and special genius. 

That spirit of the New Age which breathes everywhere, 
and which has produced such marvels in every branch of 
human activity, will exercise without doubt, a potent 
influence on the fine and noble arts; inasmuch as that 


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spirit comes from the spiritual world, and is according to 
the Divine promise to make all things new. 

Invited to write upon the mission of the New Church 
to Art, I shall endeavor briefly to demonstrate what shall 
be the influence of the New Church upon those arts which 
have for their object the representation of the beautiful; 
but inasmuch as it is necessary to set forth at first some 
preliminary ideas regarding the beautiful; and as this, 
according to the general notion, is divided into natural 
beauty and artificial beauty, I shall discourse briefly first 
upon natural beauty and afterwards on the artificial, and 
from the last I shall proceed to my subject. 

Beauty made itself visible upon the natural world, 
during the second period or state of the regeneration of 
the most ancient men, that which is described symboli- 
cally in Genesis in the six days of creation. This is 
signified, when, at every period of the Divine progress it 
is repeated, beginning upon the second day, that the 
Creator found very good the works of His hands. 

The word good, besides conformity to purpose, signi- 
fies also beauty, which in common language often con- 
founds itself with the goodness from which it is derived. 
In fact the writings of the New Church teach us that 
all that is beautiful comes from the good, and that the 
beautiful is derived from the good in which is innocence. 

In the six days of the creation, or of the regeneration, 
man and all the terrestrial forms were unfolded and 
reduced to the perfection of their forms, to the adequate 
expression of the spiritual types to which they corresponded 
and which they represented. Every morning of those 
joyous and magnificent intervals is marked with the 
apparition of new marvels and beauties. Man made in 
the image and likeness of God is invested as a king, 
with the dominion of the world. He gives names to the 
animals. His sojourn is in a garden of delights, an Eden, 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


873 


a paradise, because then man lived according to order; 
wherefore everything upon the earth was beautiful and 
perfect in its kind. The bad, the brutal, the deformed 
was unknown in fact as well as in name. 

The reign of beauty began then in the completion of 
the cosmogony, destined to increase perpetually, if evil 
resulting from the abuse of human freedom had not 
intervened. This is the golden age, indistinctly recorded 
in the oriental and occidental myths of the pagans. 

Nevertheless the first cosmic age divides itself into 
two grand periods, the one of which was physical and 
preparatory, the other spiritual, aesthetic and comple- 
mentary. In the first there was a view to the production 
and disposition of the earthly materials. In the second 
the composition of its form through the operation of the 
Divine Wisdom. It was at that time that the Word, 
“without which was not anything made that was made,’ , 
according to the sublime expression of the evangelist, 
began to be immanent in the world. 

It was in the aesthetic period that man, from the 
simple animal or from not man, became the image and 
likeness of God through the regeneration which the Lord 
worked in him. Wherefore this period was, in respect to 
the preceding one, a second creation, but more complete 
because it exalted the form of the first creation to a 
superior power, making spiritual types to shine forth 
and predominate in all sensuous things. In fact in the 
formless matter and in the coarsely organized bodies, as 
in fossils, the form was wanting, or was subordinated to 
the material; while in the aesthetic period the con- 
trary came to pass, and, the principle of formation pre- 
vailing, matter was animated and somewhat spiritualized. 

The Divine Art D, in fact, the complement of creation, 
and distinguishes the second creative cycle from the first. 


374 


NEW' CHURCH CONGRESS 


If the primitive order established in this second 
period had not been spoiled, the beautiful would have 
continued to simplify and perfect itself. But man hav- 
ing destroyed in himself that primitive and Divine order 
through the abuse of free will, and the Divine germs of 
good and of truth having been poisoned by contrary prin- 
ciples, even earthly beauty was affected by this calamity, 
and suffered in proportion . The ugly, which is the form 
of evil and falsity, entered with these into the world and 
took possession of its various parts, destroying the beauty 
of form, or at least diminishing or obscuring it. This 
ought not to seem wonderful, because among the various 
organic species of the earth man has the control, being 
himself the principal end of creation, and everything 
being made for him and referring to him. The beauty of 
things had to alter itself in consequence, becoming less 
the correspondence of objects with their types. 

Perfect beauty is perhaps not found at present in any 
work of nature; therefore Art has now the advantage. 
Wherefore, although Art can never touch the height of 
perfection, nor does in any case the ungrateful material 
respond entirely to the intention of the artist; still in the 
hands of valorous genius it may swerve less from the 
excellence of the ideal than does nature. 

The elements of the cosmic harmony reduce them- 
selves to three, which are, — the good, the true and the 
beautiful. These united in their subjects constitute the 
order of the world in its fullness. To each one of these 
three is opposed a correlative defect by alteration or by 
want, — that is to the good, the evil; to the true, the false; 
to the beautiful, the deformed. These two series of good 
and evil accompany each other in the actual course of 
terrestrial life. Whence is born that state of violence and 
of combat, which is the natural condition of the globe 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


375 


which we inhabit, and results from the propensity of 
every part to make itself the center of all, undermining 
the true principle of universal unity and harmony. 

The legitimate center of things is God, Who, inform- 
ing the intellects and the hearts of men, directing their 
operations, reflecting Himself in all sensible objects, and 
harmonizing all the objects of the world, shines for 
every created thing as the good, the true and the 
beautiful. The Divine will once weakened, and the 
splendor which is derived from it and dispenses itself 
universally once lessened, the negative qualities which 
before hid themselves in the depths of their being as 
simple powers, come to the front and produce that mix- 
ing and continual interchanging of truth and error, of 
pleasure and misfortune, of virtue and crime, of beauty 
and of deformity, which is the inheritance of man, and in 
proportion of every inferior species. Thi^ is repugnant 
to the perfect rhythm of the creation, in which variety 
ought to conduce with unity, every part according to the 
whole, and the whole with the parts. 

It is according to the Divine Providence that order 
shall be re-established, and this shall be through the 
Second Advent of the Lord, causing a gradual progress 
in the good, in the true and the beautiful, a beauty 
which shall result from the greatest possible perfection 
in the cosmic type, therefore in the whole as in the part. 
Such shall be the fruit of human regeneration, which 
shall have as its consequence the renovation of all things. 

Artificial beauty belongs to the present epoch, as the 
natural and perfect beauty belonged to the golden age 
and the beginning of the world. This is because the 
actual state of the world discording with the cosmic 
type, or that which is with that which ought to be, man 
creates the beauty of art to supply in some way the 
defect of nature. Artificial beauty is composed of two 


376 


NEW-CHimCH CONGRESS 


elements, the one sensual, the other intellectual. The 
intellectual is that which is commonly known as the 
ideal, which produces the beautiful by transforming 
itself into a fantastical type through the aid of the 
imagination. Wherefore this type, being purely an 
internal sensibility, or, it may be, a modification of our 
mind, does not exist outside of ourselves. For example, 
the conception of a picture is an internal sensibility, a 
phantom of the imagination, because it is the imagina- 
tion of the desire of a person, or of a corporeal entity, 
which does not exist outside of the fancy of the artist, 
before he has drawn it on his palette or canvas or wall. 

******** 

In short, the perfect beauty is the ideal, which, 
dwelling no more among earthly things, must arise in 
the minds of the poet and of the artist. And thus, 
as natural beauty reigned in the beginning of the world, 
and shall come at last to be perfectly re-established, 
artificial beauty is as a renewing of the primitive order, 
and an anticipation of the terminative and final order. 
The fancy which creates it is in a certain sense the 
diviner of a past of which few traces remain, and the 
augurer of a future, whose germs shall flower and bear 
new and more excellent fruit through man’s regeneration, 
which shall produce in nature a new and more perfect 
creation. In the same way that the ingenuity of Cuvier 
remade the old world, re- composing those decayed and 
deformed beings which peopled the earth in its first period, 
the poet and the artist will renew the happy principles of 
the age following the golden age when man lived in 
the delights of Eden, and all things were very good. 

It is just in this that that ideal consists, of which 
many discourse without having a clear or precise con- 
ception of it. The ideal is a harmonious composition of 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


8 11 


the first and last perfection of created things; it is a 
tradition and a prophecy, a memory and a presentiment, 
a desire and a hope, a retiring into the past and a 
launching into the future. Wherefore the poetic fire, 
the genius of the true poet and of the true artist are as 
a Divine inspiration in the natural order; whence a Latin 
poet could say with truth : 

u Est Deus in nobis: agitante 
Calescimus illo.” 

The two elements which constitute artificial beauty 
are not equal and parallel to each other, neither has each 
been endowed with the same reciprocal dependence; 
wherefore one of them ought to be able to prevail over 
the other, to govern and rule it in such a manner that it 
neither offends nor tyrannizes it; which would certainly 
befall if the less noble principle had the majority. It is 
necessary, therefore, that the spiritual type be the princi- 
pal one and greater than the other element. Therefore 
beauty annuls itself or at least diminishes and darkens 
itself, when the sensuous shines the brightest 
and even succeeds in overtaking and obscuring the 
intellectual. 

******** 

But how can it be that man supplements with art the 
lost beauties of nature, if his fancy, like all other terres- 
trial things, is subjected to the common calamity ? How 
shall one infirm faculty be able to cure others and 
itself? Whence shall it obtain that ideal which enters 
less into man than into the external world since that beauty 
had been changed in us as in other terrestrial things ? If 
the spiritual and physical organism of man and all beings 
are in discord with the perfection of their types, how can 
the poets and artists procure for themselves a true 

25 


378 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


knowledge of this perfection and restore the representation 
of it? In vain one would try to remove the objection 
by saying that artificial beauty is also imperfect, and that 
few men arrive at any exact conception or expression 
of it, because there still remains to be explained how the 
few escaped the common fate, and how Art can sometimes 
conquer nature. The difficulty is insoluble if one stand 
within the limits of natural reason. It is necessary, 
therefore, to recur to a higher principle, since the super- 
natural is legitimate when it is required to put nature in 
accord with itself. Let us seek this principle therefore; 
and if we find that it is the same principle which here 
gives us the key to all human origin and explains every 
part of man’s civilization, it will increase not a little the 
strength and the soundness of our conclusions. 

From what has thus far been observed it is clear 
that for the resurrection of Art from its present state 
of decadence, the restoration of the imagination 
is absolutely necessary. Because, as we have seen, 
it is the imagination that creates artificial beauty, 
uniting together a sensuous form given from the 
senses, and an intellectual type furnished by the reason. 
From this composition emerges “ il tipo fantastico,” 
which this faculty is always able to inform, to animate, 
to vivify mentally, vesting it in those colors, motives, 
acts and resemblances which give to it a kind of body 
and individuality. 

But imagination in its present state is infirm and 
perverted, because of that predominance of the senses 
in which consists the radical disease and corruption of 
the human mind. In fact, from the predominance of 
the senses proceeds the obscurity of the reason, the 
weakening of the judgment, the corruption of the affec- 
tions, and finally the languor and the license of the 
imagination which, controlled in its operation as it is 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH , 379 

by the less noble faculties, deprives the intellect of its 
control, or does not know how to give to its fancy that 
ideal life in which dwells the beautiful. Whenever all 
these human powers withdraw from this sensual tyranny, 
every one of them recovers its nerves, harmony re enters 
the soul, the will above all recovers its lost liberty and 
the lordship of man; and in the degree that this faculty 
presides over the exercise of all others, its liberation is 
the beginning of a general improvement. But before 
the restoration of the imagination and of all the other 
spiritual faculties of man ought to come that of the 
intellect, because it is the illumined intellect of truth 
which teaches to every one what he ought to believe, to 
desire and to do. Whence it follows that the beautiful 
ideal in Art cannot be restored if first the truth is not 
re-established; or, in other words, that the re-inaugura- 
tion of the beautiful is inseparable always from that of 
the true. 

Divine revelation is a supernatural fact, which gives 
to us the keys of all origins and explains to us every 
part of human civilization. It was Divine revelation 
which gave to the first men a reflective knowledge of the 
intellectual or spiritual types of created things. This is 
signified in Genesis, chapter ii, verses 19-20, where in a 
language symbolical and representative, it is told that 
immediately after the creation of every beast of the field 
and every bird of heaven, they were brought to Adam 
that it might be seen what name he would give to each. 

To give a name signifies to know the quality, since 
the ancients by name meant nothing else than the essence 
of the thing. Behold, then, the beginning or the funda- 
mental doctrine of creation, which indicates to us the 
spiritual types of created things in the ideas of the 
creative mind. 


880 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


And every one may be gradually confirmed in this 
truth in the degree that with the external objects there 
appear to the eyes of the reason the specific ideas corres- 
ponding to them, and he will consider natural objects in 
their relation to the idea which has produced them. 
Hence arises that stupendous similitude and conjunction 
that runs through nature and Art, cosmology and 
aesthetics. Wherefore the beautiful cannot be restored 
to the dominion of Art if the mind of the artist is not 
raised to these sublime principles of the supreme doctrine 
of truth. 

The pantheists and the materialists, scorning this 
guide, cannot learn this legitimate process of the ideal, 
and therefore are incapable of feeling or finding perfect 
beauty; because, following their false systems, they not 
only confound everything, mixing the substance with the 
form, and matter with spirit, but, worse still, they give 
the predominance to the inferior elements, and thus they 
disturb the hierarchy of created things. 

As created things in the three kingdoms of nature 
are unequal among themselves in worth and complete- 
ness, and concur in this diversity to produce the uni- 
versal harmony, thus the spiritual types which they 
represent form a graduated scale of affection and per- 
ception, which have for origin and beginning the Divine 
mind, and for their end, man. 

History teaches us that in olden times, as in modern, 
as often as these truths have been disregarded, the ideas 
of men have become confused, because intellectual order 
has been disturbed in equaling or preferring the inferior 
to the superior, inanimate and bestial nature to man, 
matter to spirit, and the sensuously useful to the delight- 
ful and to the morally good, to the true and to the 
beautiful. Whence have arisen in ethics, in politics, in 
culture, every sort of enormity, as idolatry, human 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


381 


sacrifice, the tyranny of a man or a caste, cannibalism, 
slavery, the deification of brutes, and atrocities and 
wickedness of every kind, which all proceed from the 
radical confusion of the ideas introduced by pantheism 
and by materialism. 

And from this same confusion comes the perverted 
custom of to-day among descriptive artists and poets, of 
preferring the type of inanimate and irrational nature to 
that of man. But the abuse of a descriptive style is a 
small matter compared with that most degraded taste 
which to-day prevails in Europe, where the poets, the 
comedians, the romancers, the painters, the artists, from 
the lowest up, seem to contend among themselves in 
representing the low, the vulgar, the deformed, the ugly, 
the atrocious; and the most of them prostitute their 
wit and genius to a glory ephemeral and vain, having no 
higher purpose than their own reputation. 

The New Church is the instrument of God in the 
world for the regeneration of the human race. To this 
end there has been given to it by means of the writings 
of Emanuel Swedenborg, an understanding of the spirit- 
ual sense of the Holy Scriptures, and there have been 
confided to it treasures of doctrine full of such angelic 
wisdom as has never before been heard on this earth. 
Great, therefore, is its mission for men, — that spiritual 
educator and promoter of every civil culture. The 
influence which this can exercise by re-establishing the 
ideal beauty in Art is entirely spiritual, and is grounded 
in the faithful and effectual promulgation of the great 
truths contained in its heavenly doctrines, and principally 
of the following: 

“ Everything in the universe had been created by the 
Divine Love and Divine Wisdom of God-Man. 

“ The universe was not created from nothing, because 
from nothing it is impossible to bring forth anything; 


382 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


but the creation was made by means of the sun of the 
angelic heaven, following the laws of correspondence. 

“ Man being the final end of creation, each and every- 
thing was created for him;” “wherefore the uses of all 
created things ascend by degrees, from the lowest to man 
and from man to God.” 

“All created things are uses, and they are uses in 
that order, degree and respect in which they refer to man, 
and through man to God.” 

“ The evil uses, which embrace all injurious animals 
and vegetable productions, have not been created by 
God, but have had their origin in a hell which has been 
formed by men.” 

“The Divine Providence orders that the evil uses, 
such as the wicked and the false, serve for equilibrium, 
for relation and the purification, and thus for the con- 
junction of the good and the true in others.” 

These truths once known and received, one can have 
a just idea of the cosmic type, and it is no more possible 
to confound the discreet and heavenly order of created 
things, and thus one is on the way which leads to the 
restoration of the ideal in Art; because the ideal is 
found wherever this perfect beauty dwells. But as the 
things of nature differ from each other in worth, thus 
the aesthetic ideals vary from each other in perfection 
and compose a hierarchy of which man is the summit. 
Descending from this height to the lowest regions of 
nature, there is not a single thing that, in its order, 
degree and relation, may not have its own type, and be 
capable of an ideal beauty of its own, when the model 
shines lor us in its perfection. 

Thus the New Church sets up again the genuine 
scale of spiritual types, restoring and assigning to each 
one of them that grade and importance which is proper 
to it. The type of man, prince of the earth, compendium 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


383 


and likeness of the Creator, is the apex of the beautiful 
ideal; and therefore the human type ought to prevail in 
that art which is devoted to expressing the harmony of 
things and the perfect idea of the world. 

Restoring thus to man his legitimate supremacy, 
subordinating him to the Creator, teaching him the 
divinity of his origin in the excellence of his primal state, 
the degenerate condition in which he is fallen through his 
own fault, the debt which he owes and the means which 
are offered him for redemption, and the supreme blessed- 
ness for which he is destined, the New Church will with- 
draw Art from the anarchy, the license, the extreme 
baseness into which it is fallen, from being no longer 
governed by a superior light. 

It shall do more. Its doctrines show that Art comes 
from heaven, because the Lord, whose divinity completes 
and forms heaven, and produces for us continually new 
wonders and beauties, is the first and greatest Artist ; and 
that human art is a weak imitation of His Divine 
working. 

The means by which Art comes from heaven is an 
immediate influx, of which the writings of the New Church 
thus speak: 

“From the immediate influx of truth proceeding from 
the Lord results that light which gives the faculty of 
understanding. It is of this light as of the light of the 
eye’s vision. In order that the eye may see the things 
that are before it, it is necessary that there be a light, 
from which results a general illumination. In this light 
the eye sees and discerns objects, and is affected with 
beauty and with the pleasure resulting with their harmony 
with order. It is similar with the vision of the internal 
eye which is the intellect. In order that this may see, it 
is necessary that there be a light whence shall arise 
general illumination, in which shall appear the objects 


884 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


which are the things of intelligence and wisdom. This 
light comes from the Divine Truth, which proceeds 
immediately from the Lord. 

“When man is in good and thence in truth, he is 
elevated into this Divine light, and more or less internally, 
according to the quantities and qualities of the good; 
whence there is through him a common light, in which 
by Divine grace he sees truths innumerable.” 

With this doctrine the New Church becomes the true 
fountain, from which spiritual types may spring, and it 
shows that God is the origin of all aesthetic conceptions, 
and thence of the beautiful in Art; because the Divine 
light which renders intelligible all truths and gives to our 
intellects the faculty of understanding them, is itself that 
which inspires those ideals, without which it is impossible 
to create the beautiful. 

Governed by these high principles, Art purifies and 
elevates itself. Its followers recognize that the poetic 
fire, the genius with which they are endowed, they derive 
continually from the supreme Artist of the universe. 
These are talents confided to them for a good use, and 
ought to serve for the spiritual and moral progress of 
humanity. Whence they shall be preserved from the 
insane pride of attributing to themselves these Divine 
gifts, or of applying them to the single aim of acquiring 
riches and honors, instead of promoting the general 
progress towards the good, the true and the beautiful. 
They do not therefore seek the glory which is derived 
from the opinions and judgment of men, but most truly 
that glory which comes from works done according to the 
eternal truth, because this is a glory splendid and 
enduring, like the Divine origin from whence it comes. 

Brought back to its true principles, purified of the 
base motives which have contaminated and corrupted it, 
directed to its high and noble ideals, Art regenerated 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


885 


shall be a most powerful means of spiritual progress. 
Because it has the strength to lift the soul from sensuous 
things, transporting it on the wings of the beautiful to 
a higher world, where it may breathe an air more pure 
and vital than that which environs it below. And this 
miracle is produced by all the noble and fine arts, but in 
particular by music, which among all the arts is most 
potent for snatching us from the world in which we are 
and lifting us into an ideal abode where all is harmony 
and beauty. 

The contemplation of the beautiful, elevating the 
mind from sensuous things, accustoms man to the pre- 
eminence and the dominion of truth over fact, of spirit 
over flesh, and of things imperishable and eternal over 
mortal pleasure and interests. Thus commences that 
liberation of the human soul from sensual servitude, which 
is afterward completed by morality and by Religion in 
this life and in the life to come. 

IX 

THE MISSION OF THE NEW CHURCH TO SOCIOLOGY 
AND GOVERNMENT. 

BY REV. CHARLES H. MANN 

The mission of the New Church to sociology and 
government is as the revelator of the divine doctrine of 
the organic solidarity of the human race; and of its 
communal reception of divine life, together with the 
sociological principles which follow from this doctrine. 
The solidarity of the race is an ancient teaching; but its 
organic solidarity is a doctrine peculiar to the New 
Church. By organic solidarity we mean a universal 
brotherhood of peculiar character and significance. It 
is not a brotherhood merely from a common divine 
parentage; that has always been recognized. Nor is it 


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a brotherhood from common sympathies; that is a 
brotherhood more ancient than history. Nor is it a 
brotherhood, heavenly though such a brotherhood would 
be, in which every man seeks in his individual capacity 
to do good to others; that is a brotherhood which has 
commanded the homage of all men of spiritual ambition 
in all ages. But organic solidarity is a brotherhood 
which springs from the organic oneness of all human 
beings; and which in a subordinate way exists in many 
combinations of human beings. Men are not a mere 
congregation of brothers; they are organically parts the 
one of another. They are not merely individually of 
a divine fatherhood, and therefore entitled to equal 
consideration; each is but a part of one whole, which 
is the racial unit in which God dwells. 

This new aspect of human brotherhood is found in 
the unique New-Church doctrine of the Maximus Homo , 
from which we learn that the whole human race, in 
heaven and on earth, before the eyes of the Lord is a 
perfect unit, and that this oneness is not a mere bind- 
ing together into one as a bag of sand is one on account 
of the oneness of the bag, but that it is an organic unity 
in which all the parts are dependently inter- related, as 
are the parts of a man’s body, each man taking his indi- 
vidual position according to his service to the whole. 
The absolute inter dependent oneness of all men, in 
heaven, on earth and in hell, from the Alpha to the 
Omega of life, from the first to the last of every man 
who has been or who ever will be born, is the meaning 
of the doctrine of the Maximus Homo. 

But this doctrine teaches not only the organic unity 
of all humanity, taken in its entirety, it includes in its 
application those engaged in the service of any common 
use or interest. All such are not to be regarded as 
separate personalities, whose contribution to the world is 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


387 


the sum of what they individually accomplish — they are 
in a special way also parts of one another — they are an 
organic one — a greater man — a Major Homo ; even as in 
the grandest way the whole race of men is the greatest 
man, the Maximus Homo. 

The doctrine of the Maximus Homo , and if I may be 
allowed to coin an expression, the doctrine of Majores 
Homines , is practically realized in the spiritual world, 
where men live in perfect, divinely organized societies, 
organized on the basis of mutual service; that is, where 
the use which the individual performs is what determines 
all questions as to his position, possessions and honor. 

In this one, all-extensive teaching of the Maximus 
Homo , and in the illustrations of it to be found in the 
descriptions our doctrines give us of the society organiza- 
tions of the spiritual world, and still further in the great 
principles which are derived from these, may be found 
what the New Church has to contribute to the science of 
sociology and government, and to the solution of the 
sociological problems now agitating the world. The 
presentation of heavenly society life to be found in this 
doctrine supplies us with a perfect pattern of a true 
society or government. We have here a conception of 
society in which at once the best rights of the individual 
are preserved and the most perfect society life attained; 
in which the infinite love of God, going out equally to 
every person, is harmonized with the seeming differences 
among men; in which justice towards every one, without 
distinction, is preserved without making all men of the 
same condition; in which every one is made equal before 
the law and in society rights, while the freest scope is 
given to each to realize from his individual efforts all that 
his special talents and gifts can bring him. In this 
doctrine we have a conception of society in which each 
has all the share in society privileges the communist could 


388 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


ask, and in which individual rights to personal posses- 
sions are preserved as well ; in which each is individually 
as free as the anarchist could demand, and yet in which as 
perfect a society is constituted as the socialist could demand. 

We can not in this brief treatment of the subject bring 
out exhaustively the great principles which are involved 
in this doctrine, but I will enumerate a few which will 
enable us to see the scope of what the New Church has 
to contribute to the science of sociology and government, 
and to the solution of the urgent problems now agitating 
man in social and governmental reforms. 

1. The first great principle is, that in society rela- 
tionships man not only is to realize his highest destiny, 
but that only in such relationships can any of his pur- 
poses be successfully carried out. All achievements of 
our earthly life, great and small, can only be fully 
accomplished by organic bodies of men; and at the 
same time the very height of heavenly life is to be 
attained through this organic brotherhood. The higher 
the heavenly state of men is, so much the more perfect is 
their realization of organic brotherhood. As the late 
Henry James expressed it, “Society is the redeemed form 
of man.” In his devotion to society, therefore, and in his 
looking to society for the supply of his needs, does the 
individual accomplish all the purposes of his being. This 
principle places the questions of sociology and government 
upon their true bases, and tells us where to look for light 
in their consideration. This doctrine, it will be observed, 
is the opposite of solitairism, or of the conception that the 
greatness of life’s rewards are to be secured by individual 
heroism or separation from fellow man. The most 
absolute indentification with one’s fellows is the only true 
road to the realization of the purposes of our creation. 

2. Again, the law for gradations in social positions 
is brought out in a new way by this doctrine of the 


MISSION OF THE CHURCH 


889 


organic solidarity of man as expressed in a heavenly 
society organized on the basis of use. Social varieties 
are not done away with, but the basis for their existence 
is changed. They can rightly exist only as the external 
expression of grades of uses. All men are not made alike; 
nor would it be desirable that they should be. But dif- 
ferences in the way that men are made are expressed in 
corresponding differences in the uses they severally per- 
form, and thence in similar differences in the society 
positions they severally hold. But in a society formed 
according to the principles of the organic solidarity of 
man, all merely artificial distinctions are eliminated, and 
all social positions are determined according to one’s 
service to society. Every man must serve. No one more 
than another can in a true society be allowed to escape 
this law. It is true that some have higher uses to per- 
form than others; but that is because such is the form of 
their wisdom, and those who perform humbler uses have 
neither the wisdom nor the desire to devote themselves to 
these higher uses. It is true that some will have the 
greater wealth; but that is because they need greater 
wealth for the adequate performance of their uses in life, 
and for the gratification of their peculiar affections. But 
in the laws of justice derived from the organic solidarity 
of the race, such differences when for such reasons they 
exist, are recognized as an orderly feature of such 
brotherhood, and are seen to be for the best happiness of 
every one. These differences in a true society are not, as 
is too often the case in this world, based on arbitrarily 
established differences in the privileges of life, but arise 
from differences in disposition, talent, tastes and power, 
and thence differences in use, by which some, for use’s 
sake, will have more, and others also for use’s sake will 
have less — but never from externally devised differences 
will any one have either more or less than his neighbor. 


390 NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 

While every member of society, therefore, partakes equally 
of the right to its happiness, its glory and its wealth, each 
practically and actually partakes of that glory and wealth 
according to his capacity for service and for reception. 

3. To the question of government, and of vesting 
power in certain duly appointed men to make and to exe- 
cute laws, the doctrine of the organic solidarity of man 
brings us this principle; that to administer the functions 
of government is neither a right nor a privilege, but is a 
use and a service. To hold official positions in the gov- 
ernment may require higher than ordinary faculties, and 
should command a deference — which is extended to the 
use through the person; but the service itself does not 
essentially differ from other uses either professional or of 
labor; and official honor is never extended to the person. 
As one manufactures goods, and another distributes them; 
as a third teaches, and a fourth labors with his muscles; 
so others administer the government by devising, exe- 
cuting and interpreting the laws — laws which should not 
be expressions of the wishes of those who govern, nor 
enactments for the upbuilding of their interests, but 
should express their best understandings of the princi- 
ples of justice and wisdom. Like other functions of 
society, this is a service. Under the application of this 
principle, there must be no hereditary positions in the gov- 
ernment, nor must any appointments be made to govern- 
mental positions from any other grounds than that of 
fitness for the performance of the uses of the office. And 
in administering the affairs of the government, neither 
the personal predilections of any one, nor even the will 
of the majority, but truth and justice are the authorities 
whose word is to be wrought into law and carried out. 

4. In societies or in governments, in which this soli- 
darity is recognized as a dominant end to be served, every 
individual should have an opportunity to realize his best 


MISSION OF THE CHtlRCH 


m 


self. He who accomplishes this, is in his heaven, and 
supreme justice for him is attained. If an individual 
differs from his fellow men by being more than they 
endowed with talents, such an endowment is for the 
blessing of others, and all are thereby benefited and 
thence made glad by his possessions, not jealous on 
account of them. By those possessions he is only the 
more efficient servant. Neither jealousy nor adulation is 
in such case possible; and thus in a society in which 
use is king, both the worship of geniuses and the lack of 
respect for those having less than ordinary endowments, 
are inconceivable. 

But the doctrine of the Maximus Homo , and the 
society life it tells us of, contain within them the promise 
of special blessings, which shall surely come upon the 
earth, when they shall prevail. Since the organic 
solidarity of the race teaches us the communal reception 
of divine life, that is, that a heavenly community receives 
a life possessing a character all its own, that it does not 
consist of the mere sum of the lives of those constituting 
it, it follows that every member of such a society, par- 
taking as he does of the society’s life, receives a more 
heavenly life, according as his society is more heavenly. 
Hence as these true sociological principles shall prevail 
in earthly societies, men will receive in them a new life, 
excelling all that has been heretofore bestowed. This will 
be a fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to bestow a special 
life upon those who approach Him in communal relation- 
ship: “Where two or three are gathered together in my 
name, there am I in the midst of them.” 

And again, since societies are only greater men, this 
doctrine means that with the prevalence on the earth of a 
true society life, there shall also come into existence here 
a new kind of grander personalities; that is, that the 
earth will be inhabited by what we might call mighty 


392 


new- church Congress 


men, men like the societies of heaven composed of myriads 
of individuals, yet possessing their own distinct and 
beautiful qualities of character exceeding every possibility 
of any individual to attain by his separate personal efforts. 
The day of individualism, and of individual heroes set up 
for men to worship, has passed. We have come now to a 
day when a mightier kind of men, of men composed of 
men, shall prevail on the earth. For such shall the 
societies of the earth become when in them shall be 
realized the principles of the organic solidarity of the 
human race as revealed in the doctrines of the New Church. 

By what practical methods these principles may be 
realized, it is not the province of the Church to point 
out. Her mission is to reveal the principles. It is a 
matter of wisdom with each one to enter into the advo- 
cacy of those measures of reform which according to his 
best judgment look to the establishment of society and 
the government on this Divine pattern — a pattern in 
which differences in the external positions of its members 
shall be only the outer expression of the differences of 
their inner life, talent and dispositions, in which the 
officials of government shall be the men best adapted by 
their wisdom to perform the high function of bringing 
the truth to the earth by making righteous laws, execu- 
ting them, and interpreting them; in which the fullest 
opportunity will be afforded the individual to make what 
he chooses of himself; and in which, in one word, the 
principle that man can in society relationships most fully 
secure all the right purposes of life, shall be most evi- 
dently illustrated. The existence of such a society, or 
government would mean heaven on earth ; but the practi- 
cal conception of such a society, and a practical concep- 
tion is the first essential for obtaining it, is the contribu- 
tion of the New Church to sociology and government. 


CHAPTER VI 


WOMAN IN THE NEW CHURCH 

I 

THE TRUE RELATION OF WOMAN’S WORK TO MAN’S 
BY MRS. J. R. HIBBARD 

We are assembled here as an integral part of this 
Congress of Religions. From all parts of the world, 
representatives of creeds, both ancient and modern, have 
come together to exchange thoughts on the various ideas 
concerning God, and the relation of His creatures to 
Him, and the papers which will be presented will draw 
their inspiration from the source of Divine Truth as it 
may appear to each writer, whether he be Hindoo or 
Chinese, Mahometan or Christian. Our thoughts as 
expressed must likewise be drawn from the source of our 
religious inspiration. We are women, professing to be 
members of the New Church , and it is therefore new 
thought that we are to present to those who come to 
hear. What does it involve to be members of the New 
Church? What is this New Church that we profess? 
As I understand it, it consists of a revelation from the 
Lord of principles and laws of life by which those who 
acknowledge a belief in it may form thoughts, may 
mould their lives, so that from a new standpoint of 
spiritual truth ignored by, or perhaps unknown to the 
world at large, they may investigate, weigh and form 
conclusions on all subjects occupying the attention of 
those who think. This revelation inaugurates a new 
dispensation which constitutes the Second Coming of the 

26 


394 


NEW-CHUROH CONGRESS 


Lord, foretold when He was upon the earth. This is not 
a coming in person, but consists in an unfolding of the 
spiritual sense of His Holy Word, the literal sense of 
which He fulfilled at His First Coming. Many times in 
the lapse of ages the Lord has appeared to His children 
on the earth and always as a man, whether in the form 
of an angel, by the prophets or in His own incarnation 
as the Son of God, — so in this day of His Second 
Coming He restores a true knowledge of Himself through 
a man, Emanuel Swedenborg, whose rational mind was 
prepared to do the Lord’s work and under whose guid- 
ance He was enabled to reveal the laws of life, which, 
rationally acknowledged and obeyed, will lead the indi- 
vidual to a state of spiritual regeneration; the congrega- 
tions of individuals will form larger bodies or societies, 
the societies nations, the nations churches, until the 
whole world will bow to the Lord Jesus Christ in His 
Divine Humanity as the only God, and human life will 
be at one with the Divine life that is in obedience to the 
laws of goodness and truth, as they are formulated by 
the Divine Love and Wisdom of the Divine Creator. 

It is a beautiful thought that in the sight of the 
Lord, the human race is as one man, and has developed 
as such, — in its beginnings an infant, wholly dependent 
upon Him for spiritual sustenance, receiving its idea of 
the Divine Being from the angels, its conscious life being 
near to heaven, and its natural life being only partly 
conscious of the earth, — an innocent man- animal. In 
this golden age of its development, man was called 
“Adam.” It grew to childhood ; it no longer listened to the 
angels, but its wayward, self-assertive life had to be gov- 
erned by external precepts taught through the senses by 
pictured image of the great invisible Father, and by story 
and song concerning Him. In this second stage the 
name is changed to “Noah.” But as the centuries roll 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


395 


on, God is again forgotten, and idols take His place, and 
the race is in its boyhood, and must receive anew the true 
thought of the Creator. But the restless, fiery spirit of 
the youth brooks no control save that of fear of punish- 
ment, and only as Jehovah shows Himself in the guiding 
fiery pillar, or in the thunderings of the cloud-hooded, 
thundering Sinai, is He obeyed, and the law must be 
laid down “line upon line, precept upon precept,” and 
even this was made void in time, and the thread of con- 
tact between God and His human family had worn so 
thin that nothing but the visible presence of the Father 
in Jesus Christ, and His actual example in overcoming 
the powers of evil could save the spiritual life of this 
wandering child of His creation,'— -this human race. 
Through this stupendous work of redemption, the race, 
sick unto death, nursed back to life by the patient minis- 
try of love and a faith in the Lord Jesus, grew until a 
long lapse into selfishness and love of dominion again 
brought it into the valley of the shadow of spiritual 
death. But the babe, the child, the youth, the adolescent 
had become a man, and needed to be taught as such, 
namely by truth that would appeal to his rational mind, 
now fully alive to its own power. Then the Sun of 
Righteousness again arose -with healing in its wings, and 
once more the true idea of God is sent upon the earth 
and with a finger of light it is written Nunc Licet — now 
it is allowable to enter into the mysteries of faith. It is 
a little more than a hundred years ago that this took 
place, but what are a hundred years of time when “a 
thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday ?” We 
are, therefore, only at the dawn of this new day. The 
rosy glow announces the coming of the brilliant dawn; 
and the clouds and mists of ignorance and falsity are 
rolling back to give place to the glorious Sun of Heaven. 


396 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


We are to-day in this semi-darkness, in this age 
of transition. We welcome the new era, but as yet the 
wisest can only “ see through a glass darkly.” True 
charity, true faith, and the heavenly works of use that 
should be the embodiment of these two correspondents 
of the Lord’s love and wisdom, are but a glimmer amid 
the darkness of self-derived intelligence and the works 
that have self for their end, rather than the Lord who is 
so little known in His true character. Can we look for- 
ward into the ages to come and picture the manhood of 
the race, living according to the principles of eternal 
truth, rationally incorporated into the daily doing ? Then 
shall things assume their true relationships, and men 
and women will live in the order of their creation. What 
then will be the form of society? The Lord will be the 
head, His Church the body, and society the feet and 
hands, anxious to perform the service to the neighbor 
dictated by Him, according to the laws and principles 
taught as doctrines in the Church. What a contrast to 
the life of to-day! Is not the body politic inverted? 
Alas! the fact must be apparent to every mind which 
reflects upon the signs of the times. Surely the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the only God of Heaven and earth, is last 
in science and religion when He should be first! Has 
society not substituted the traditions of men for the 
Word of the Lord? 

In its growth toward its riper manhood and the 
wisdom of old age, the race must pass through the many 
phases of the development of this last dispensation, now 
just begun, and to me, the science of correspondences, 
which was the language of its childhood, strikingly 
illustrates this advance onward and upward, in the 
three typical trees of the Bible lands — the fig, the palm 
and the olive — which symbolize the three degrees of life, 
the natural, the spiritual and the celestial, one contained 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


397 


within the other, but developed successively. “ First 
there must be that which is natural, afterwards that 
which is spiritual.” The new age must begin in the 
natural; and this must be marked by stages of trans- 
ition from the old order of things to the wonderful ever- 
changing phases of the new. 

Let us consider for a moment the characteristics of 
the fig-tree, the type of this first period. I have seen it 
growing wild on its native soil, with the embryo fruit on 
the end of every twig, before the leaves were fully 
developed. These, when grown, are large and palmate, 
making a protecting, inviting shade in the sun-scorched 
land, but the day of blossoming never comes, — the flower 
so prominent in the two other trees, is never seen except 
as we look for it in the ripe fruit, enclosed in the purple 
or green sac with the seeds. Can we trace the spiritual 
correspondence in these peculiar features? The fig-tree 
typifies a state of natural good which inspires and brings 
forth good works before the truths are fully formulated 
and adopted which should guide all charitable efforts. 
The palmate leaves signify the thoughts of benevolence 
which shape the work of our hands into kindly deeds 
towards our fellow men. Asylums of every kind, 
societies for the protection of the oppressed and the 
amelioration of suffering spring up all over the land. 
But the flowers, those spiritual truths that instruct in 
what true charity consists, are not visible as yet, are not 
acknowledged in the world. Often our charities are mis- 
applied, our benevolent efforts often cloak unsound 
principles, and wealth and strength are wasted in reforms 
that bring no satisfactory results, because not founded 
upon charity in its highest new acceptation. In this age 
of the fig-tree lives the race to-day. It is an age of 
experiment, an age of investigation, analysis, a breaking 
up of tradition, an age of stern realism. Because of the 


398 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


emancipation of all sorts and conditions of men from the 
shackles of a superstitious obedience to custom and tra- 
dition, women are trying their newly-fledged wings to bear 
them into the atmosphere of so-called “progress.” They, 
too, are experimenting, are investigating new paths, 
making for themselves new uses, and as the Lord always 
leaves man in freedom to work out his regeneration, and 
allows him to enjoy or suffer the result of his good or 
evil doing, so will woman in this day, when every one 
must learn through doing, try to accomplish results 
wherein she must fail; she will venture into ways that 
have no opening for her, and she must retrace her steps, 
sadder and wiser; she will soar into realms where she 
will feel oppressed for free breath and will gladly 
exchange the new life for a truer atmosphere, — and all 
because the flower of the fig-tree is not seen. Mistakes 
are made, failures are encountered, but notwithstanding 
it is an age which all may warmly welcome, for “ when 
the fig-tree puts forth leaves, we know that summer is 
nigh, even at the door;” and the women of the New 
Church should, with sympathizing heart, lend a helping 
hand to all humanitarian work, but we must do more. 
We can read by the flicker of the new light pouring in 
upon us, yet so faint that it is unnoticed by others, the 
truths that teach what true use is, and by going forth 
with our little lamps burning, we can perform our use, 
because, the Lord says, this is woman's work , and not 
only because the pressure of the world around us urges 
us to action. 

And now we come to the keynote of this paper, — 
Uses; and ere we can unfurl our standaid as New- 
Church women we must, like the Marys and Marthas of 
old, sit at the feet of the Lord and learn of Him in the 
Writings of His New Dispensation that we may be 
guided to the true sense of our relation to man as a 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


399 


helpmate and colaborer. Let us, therefore, quote the 
passage from Arcana Coelestia, 997, which suggested 
this paper. 

“ Those who are in charity, that is, in love towards 
the neighbor, look for the fruition of no pleasure unless 
it be manifest in the works of charity, since it consists in 
use. Such is the life of the universal heaven, for the 
Lord’s Kingdom is a kingdom of uses. The angels 
receive happiness from the Lord according to the 
essence and quality of the use which they perform. So 
it is with every pleasure, for the more distinguished its 
use, so much the greater its delight. Thus for instance: 
Conjugal Love, which is the seminary of human society, 
and from which is formed the Lord’s Kingdom in the 
Heavens, is the most important of all uses. All pleas- 
ures are according to the excellence of their uses, which 
indeed are so numerous that it is scarcely possible to 
divide them into their several genera and species, 
although all of them regard the Lord and His Kingdom.” 

We are here taught that Conjugal Love, or the state 
of true marriage, is the foundation of the life of the 
highest use, because its end is the perfecting of the 
heavens by angels who to become such must first be 
born upon some earth in the great universe. From 
this we may plainly see that the state of wife and mother 
is the noblest condition of human life attainable by 
woman, and when society shall be regenerated by the 
living truths of the new age, the aim of all education 
will be to fit her for this highest prerogative of her 
being. From this central use flow all other uses, and 
we are told in the passages quoted that these are “innu- 
merable.” But you will say we have not reached this 
millennium, and what shall become of us while the times 
are out of joint? We cannot all be wives and mothers. 
Granted. But we can all be spiritual wives and mothers, 


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NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


that is, forms of affection in some one of the innumer- 
able uses, as members of the Lord’s great family. We 
are to be helpmates to the other sex. Just here I 
would like to present to your notice some conclusions 
drawn from many passages which you have no doubt 
read in your studies of late, so that I need only recall 
them to your minds. 

1st. The very essence of the masculine mind is the 
love of acquiring wisdom. The essence of the feminine 
mind is the love of wisdom when acquired. (C. L. 32, 
88, 90.) 

2d. The male sees, concludes and acts from intellect, 
or more properly from reason, the female from affection, 
which gives her perception. The feminine mind receives 
the internal form and brings it forth into effect — out 
into the external, clothing and decorating it. (C. L. 115, 
122 .) 

3d. The duties of the sexes are different, owing to 
the different essence of their mental conformation, but they 
are conjunctive. (C. L. 100.) 

4th. The duties of men are those in which the 
understanding and judgment predominate and relate to 
public uses performed away from the home. Women’s 
duties tend to the forming, developing, making practical 
in all ways, by the activity of her perceptive affections of 
use, the rational wisdom of the man, a work he cannot do. 
(C. L., 9. 174, 175, 176.) Women are more wise in some 
things than men. They sometimes discourse wisely and 
with eloquence. (C. L. 168, 208, 293, 330.) 

An intelligent study of the Writings will teach us that 
in every use to be performed there must be found the con- 
junction of two essential principles. May not these be 
represented by the two sexes, — one part to be more fitly 
performed by the man, and the other suited to the genius 
of the women- and will not the use be more perfectly 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


401 


accomplished when men and women work together side 
by side in the fear of the Lord and for His sake ? The 
man using his rational faculty to judge, analyze, and put 
into a general form a thought of use; while the woman 
with her perception of what is fitting, her love of orderly 
detail, her tender sympathy and encouragement, will 
carry to completion this thought which has taken form 
in his understanding. When this relation is accepted 
between man and woman, there can be no question of 
inferiority on the one hand or superiority on the other. 
Each, in freedom to act according to the quality of the 
reason which Gcd the Creator has bestowed, shall work 
for the perfection of that use which can only become 
perfected by their conjunctive effort. Man cannot exist 
in fullness without woman ; and when they are conjoined 
in the performance of any use, then there is in it that 
trine which exists in every perfect creation of the Lord. 
In the ancient Religions of the East, this trine in the 
Divine Being was symbolized to the senses of the wor- 
shipers by a triad of beings, — a man, a woman, and a 
child; and no matter what the attributes of the invisible 
Creator, to be expressed, it was always pictured in the 
walls of the temples in this trinal form. By making a 
practical application of this principle of creation to all 
the general uses of life in this world, it seems to me there 
will be no lack of avenues for legitimate work for women. 
Medicine, the law, fine arts, mechanics as applied to indus- 
tries, all offer opportunities for the exercise of the especial 
form of woman’s mind, and if she be true to the God- 
given instinct of her being, she will not walk in the path 
of the man; but side by side they will be true help-meets, 
the one to the other. To enable her to fulfill this exalted 
mission, her intellect must be developed and educated. 
Let her have colleges, her higher education, not that she 
may study as men do, or become more like them; but 


402 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


developed according to her own especial mental conforma- 
tion, that she may be more fully the perfect woman. 
In the broad field of the education of the young, her 
duty is plainly taught in the doctrines of the New 
Church, and by obeying the precepts therein unfolded, 
she may do much toward setting the inverted body of 
society on its feet again. This use is especially that of 
the wife and mother, and her education should prepare 
her for it. Old methods of instruction must pass away; 
and already the true keynote has been struck in the Kin- 
dergarten, by whose principles, properly understood, the 
senses are brought into service, to lay the foundation 
stones of that storehouse, the memory, where the remains 
of innocence must be preserved until the quickening touch 
of the great Husbandman calls them forth to life. And 
more important still to the youth of both sexes are the 
Industrial Schools springing up in every large city where 
the affection of use is formulated by a thought expressed 
in the works of the hands. Truly the Lord is making 
all things new and the most solemn exhortation I can 
make to my sisters in the New Church and out of it is to 
learn how to “ live truly and by that I mean, how to 
bring into active use to the neighbor, the capabilities 
with which each one is endowed by her Creator. Every 
one, whether man or woman, comes into this world to 
fill an allotted part in the ever- widening sphere of God’s 
universe, and the ability, the faculty , to perform this serv- 
ice as a co-worker with the Lord, is innate , God-given . 
Cultivate it when you feel its awakening, for the sake of 
use; the Lord will unfold the conditions which will make it 
active. In its exercise will be found true happiness. To 
some the great King commits five talents, to some two, to 
some one. Let every woman look to it that she lay not 
away what is given to her “in a napkin.” When He 
Cometh from the far journey, may He say, not only to 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


403 


the faithful wives, but to every woman, whether she wear 
the crown of motherhood or not: “ Ye have been faithful 
over a few things. Enter ye into the joy of your Lord.” 

II 

WOMAN IN THE CHRISTIAN WORLD 
BY MISS CARRIE E. ROWE, LONDON 

The supreme test in the New Church of all things 
and of all movements is their use. This divine law, 
clearly seen or dimly discerned by the large minds that 
govern the world of thought and stimulate the world of 
action is, in her doctrines, shown to be distinctly funda- 
mental to all true order and happiness. Its study is one 
of the heavenly sciences of which the hard-headed 
scientific world of to-day is almost absolutely ignorant; 
and yet it is the one before whose final tribunal all its 
conclusions will be arraigned, and accepted or condemned 
according to their agreement with or difference from it. 

The Sacred Scriptures define the highest work of 
woman to be help-meet for man; such is the expressed 
purpose of her Creator, and such has been the place 
assigned her by the good and true men of all ages. 
From the lips of his most consummate villain, Iago, our 
own Shakespeare gives us the lowest estimate of woman, 
the merely sensual, “to suckle fools.” The intellectual, 
highly cultured Iago is at heart a savage, and the purity 
and gentleness of Desdemona arouse in him neither pity 
nor remorse. But in the pages of Shakespeare we find 
his own ideals, the most perfect examples of womanly 
beauty and dignity of which any literature can boast. 

It is noticeable that with the dawning light of the 
New Church since the completion of the last Judgment, 
a greater pre-eminence has gradually been acceded to 


404 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


woman as “ wife.” The Christian Church has until 
recently looked askance at the relationship which the 
new revelation shows to be the only enduring one. 
The Madonna drew the hearts of men to her worship as 
“ the mother;” emblem of all that was purest and 
sweetest in the world; and the tender reverence of poet 
and painter glorified her in that dignified and holy use. 
But Tennyson and Browning speak for the New Era, and 
attest the spirituality of the marriage union, a union pre- 
figured by the descent of the Holy City as the Bride, the 
Lamb’s wife. With this New Era, the emancipation of 
woman, as it is called, has been gradually effected; her 
right to greater freedom of action and thought insisted 
upon; and the way opened for her to various professions 
that until lately were deemed the sole province of man. 
The question for the New Church to consider, therefore, 
is whether the new movement is in the direction of com- 
pleter womanhood; whether the new avenues open up 
for women the more perfect use. The purpose of the 
Creator is unchanged: “ help-meet for man” is still the 
highest destiny for woman; what are the ends and aims 
of the manhood of the present generation which our 
women are seeking to share? Is the trend of the present 
day thought toward the Lord and His Kingdom ? Women 
aspire to the pulpit; do men there testify to the reality, 
nearness and eternity of either? They will be scientific, 
and present day science is full of unconcealed antagonism 
to religion. Medicine is a favored field of use for men; 
but the horrors of vivisection, and the increasing list of 
operations where final cure is impossible are spreading 
evils. Politicians are striving for power and place; 
women seek seats in the forum; will they become deter- 
rent forces, or will they go with the tide? To be rich 
is the main end of the majority; will women be witnesses 
of the delight that lives in simpler pleasures, healthier 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


405 


aims, and purer ends ? Are women in these departments 
attaining a higher calling, or is it not a sorrowful fact 
that men have fallen short of the dignity of theirs? In 
both there is a growing distaste to the ties of marriage, 
and the responsibilities of motherhood are regarded as 
irksome and inconvenient. 

A pessimistic outlook, truly ! No, my sisters; pessi- 
mism knows no God, no future. We believe in both. 
Evils seen and acknowledged are on the road to removal. 

In the doctrines of the New Church, in the writings 
it is her privilege to possess, the distinctive character of 
man and woman is drawn from the source of all wisdom, 
and their mutual dependence and helpfulness fully and 
perfectly illustrated by the same Divine authority. 

We read in “Conjugal Love, ,, — “It is believed by 
many that women can perform the duties of men, if 
initiated into them at an early age. They may be initi- 
ated into the exercise of such duties, but not into the 
judgment upon which their rectitude interiorly depends; 
wherefore women so initiated are bound in matters of 
judgment to consult men; when they will select from 
such counsels what favors their own love.” Here it is 
conceded that women can do the work of men, but dis- 
tinctly affirmed that they cannot do it in the same way. 
Doubtless some women will do it better than some men, 
but the basis of their action is the wise thought con- 
sciously or unconsciously drawn from the masculine 
mind. Again in the same paragraph we are told that the 
works of learned authoresses are the production, not of 
judgment and wisdom, but of ingenuity and wit. A hard 
saying, but one no true woman will deny if she be loyal 
to the Writings, and acknowledge their teachings of the 
radical difference between her and man. Due stress 
should, however, be laid on the term “ learned;” the love 
messages, the love language of woman, is all her own; 


406 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


when her heart speaks the world hushes its tumult to 
listen, and lays its reverent homage at her feet. But in 
these facts lie the great difficulties for advanced women 
workers; are they willing to admit the God-implanted 
difference? Let us balance the apparent disappoint- 
ment with one of the most perfect pictures of feminine 
happiness that our Heavenly Father has vouchsafed to us. 

In an abode near the Temple of Wisdom, Sweden- 
borg converses with a wise one, and observes that his 
home, divided into two, is still one. He asks the reason, 
and has for answer, “lam not alone; my wife is with me; 
we are two, yet not two, but one flesh.” Swedenborg 
replies, “ I know that you are a wise one, but what has a 
wise one to do with a woman ?” The wise one puts the 
question to other inhabitants of this glorious region of 
the spiritual world, and the smiling answer is given from 
the heart happiness of all: “ What is a wise one without 
a woman, or without love ? A wife is the love of a wise 
man’s wisdom.” After a talk on the heavenly origin of 
female beauty the wife appears and Swedenborg is sensible 
of her living presence in the very speech of her husband, 
“ for in its tone was her love.” 

“ Yes, that is all very well for the happily married,” 
it will be said, “but how is it for those who are unequally 
yoked, or those who miss what you call their proper use 
and destiny?” Dear sisters, this world is not all; here is 
the school-time of life, the single-handed labor needed 
for the shaping and development of man and woman 
alike. Let us never forget that, mated or alone, our 
destiny in the order of God’s Providence is to be help- 
meet for man. Physical motherhood does not necessarily 
imply real motherliness; that is a use that reaches into 
the heavens, the children are about us; let our hearts 
and hands go out to the little ones of our Father if we 
have none of our own to call us “mother.” True 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


407 


wifehood is sadly rare; but wise, not ignorant unselfishness 
is its basis, and in the aftertime will be its continent for 
full fruition. We are not all alike in gifts and attain- 
ments; neither are men. How glorious a prospect is 
our heaven of infinite variety as contrasted with the 
dying idea of one of eternal sameness! Cultivate the 
best that is in you, but do not strive for greatness for its 
own sake. Be careful that you do not miss the use that 
lies near you in straining for that which is far off; the 
latter may bring fame; the first may bring heavenly 
delight. If you are lonely, books are good company. 
The study of the Word and the Writings brings the 
angels nearer to us, and one of the delights of life is in 
the high thought and inspirations of great men. In 
woman cannot be the love of a man’s wisdom without 
the intelligence that underlies her more perfect percep- 
tion; ignorance is no preparation for anything. 

One all-important earthly use for women is the true 
feminine art of needlework. How the swift motion of 
the tiny tool unconsciously softens worries, allays griefs 
and quiets disturbed thought. Remember this is a use 
that lives in heaven, and let that thought bring angelic 
ministrations to lighten even weary mending. There- 
fore let all girls be won to love such a means of helpful- 
ness. And for such as find home life too narrow, home 
ties too confined a sphere, or for those whom the stress 
of circumstances drives into the world’s arena of hurry 
and strife, there is one rule as for wife and mother too, — 
“ Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy 
might.” Be not slipshod or half-hearted. 

Wouldst thou go forth to bless? Be sure of thine one ground, 

Fix well thy center first, then draw thy circle round. 

There is one center of life for man, pre-eminently 
so for woman , inasmuch as love lives within wisdom. 


408 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 

Let them go forth, trusting in the Lord alone, acknowl- 
edging that without Him they can do nothing; and ever 
mindful of His purpose in their creation, they will 
become not imitators of, nor antagonistic to man, but 
true helpers, ever seeking to develop his higher nature, 
and so to bring the world into harmony with the God 
and Father of all. 


Ill 

WOMAN IN THE NEW CHURCH 
BY MISS MARY L. BARTON 

If we have a movement in society it is because the 
force behind or within it shows that it is a living issue, 
and that being so it concerns us, closely or remotely, as 
it bears upon those things which are vital to human 
welfare. 

There never has been, there never can be, any matter 
of more importance before the world than the one which 
we call, with loose nomenclature, The Woman Question; 
and it is of this grave nature for the reason that the 
problem of right living is inextricably involved with it. 
If the Divine intended us for certain ends, and planned 
us for these, and we fail to co-operate with Him thnt 
they may be brought to pass, what but perverted lives 
can result? Created, as we must believe we were, 
according to Divine order or design, we cannot get into 
any disorderly ways without turning aside from that 
channel of communication from the Lord, through 
which only can come to us the power that makes for 
righteousness. Nor is the subject one that affects 
woman in much the greater way. So close are the inter- 
ests of the two sexes that what one thinks concerning 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


409 


any affair and what one does in regard to any matter 
becomes directly productive of either good or harm in 
the life of the other. 

In the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, sixth 
verse, we find these words of our Lord : “ But from the 

beginning of the creation God made them male and 
female.” Taken alone, then, a man or a woman is but a 
fraction — the two halves must be considered together in 
order to present a unit. That such is indeed the truth 
every one recognizes in some degree, but of how man 
acts upon woman and woman reacts upon him, under har- 
monious conditions, there is much for all of us to learn. 

Family life is the ideally useful life. As we array 
ourselves for or against the preservation of all its sacred 
forms, the real quality of our souls determines itself. 
Celibacy may be enforced upon us, or we may choose it 
for some perfectly allowable reason, but if we confirm in 
our hearts the love of a single life, because we wish to 
escape the duties and the sorrows of the married life, 
we dwarf the spiritual side of our nature, and the effect 
is an arrested or one-sided development. “What God 
has joined together ” may not be sundered by man with- 
out the result being that hardness of heart that follows 
all violations of a spiritual law. 

When living together in harmony, the duties to each 
other and to society of a man and his wife is the back- 
ground that throws into relief the obligations incumbent 
upon all, whatever their condition in life may be. There 
is not one kind of virtues becoming as spiritual gar- 
ments for the married alone, and another of a distin- 
guishing cut in which the Unmarried should seek to 
clothe their souls, to express therewith other ideas of duty, 
of equal excellence. The traits of character needed by the 
wife in her relation as such are just as necessary to any 

27 


410 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


single woman for the proper unfolding of her life. A 
good theory of education will look to provide for the 
development of a girl into a round womanhood, which is 
not only the wise way of training her for wifehood, but 
the only school in which she can learn those truths of 
her own nature which may get her safely by the shoals 
and quicksands that lie in the path of all who are not 
guarded against those destructive ideas which point to 
an existence centered on self. 

Any theory regarding the sexes, that does not take 
into account their absolute dependence upon each other 
in all things, will act as a hindrance to the spiritual and 
mental development of those who fail to perceive the 
truth of the matter. So far as the apparent difficulty is 
concerned of treating ourselves as parts of a dual being, 
we should recognize the fact that union is effected on the 
spiritual plane of our lives. A more or less complete 
conjunction with others is, in truth, a necessity, and is 
the condition under which existence is possible. We live 
in two worlds, or on two planes, at one and the same 
time. Every incentive to thought or action comes to us 
from the spiritual world — a world made up of living 
human beings. Isolation for any of us is an impossi- 
bility. We are environed by souls. From every one 
there is an influence going forth from the activities of his 
thought or spirit, that seeks for a reception in some mind 
just suited to take it in and to give it a home. A more 
interior union, that may grow continually toward perfec- 
tion, is possible between man and woman, because each 
is the complement of the other, each supplying what the 
other has not. 

The woman of the New Church does not need to grope 
around in the dark for those principles of wise thinking, 
and right living, that she wants for the guidance of her 
life. To no self-derived intelligence of either man or 


411 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH! 

woman should she appeal for help to define the respec- 
tive duties belonging to the two sexes. As to a fountain 
of exhaustless wisdom may we all turn to the writings of 
that servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, Emanuel Sweden- 
borg. * * * * But there are two modes of 

investigating any subject. A wise person, having learned 
that there is something good therefore something true in 
everything, will look for it in everything, and he finds 
the good and the true because he seeks for them. 
Another hunts for error, and naturally, as perfection is 
nowhere in this world, he discloses the fault. One who 
goes to Swedenborg with the idea fixed in his mind of see- 
ing what nonsense he supposes him to have written, has 
closed his mind effectually against perceiving anything 
else. Indeed, such a person cannot long read him. He 
has no word for the like. His writings are for those 
who hunger and thirst after the spiritual nutriment they 
never before have had proffered them. Who say, in pur- 
pose, “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to 
mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, a 
habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.” No one, who 
does not have an earnest desire and affection for truth, 
for the sake of living a good life, can read understand- 
ingly the works which treat of eternal realities. Do we 
women bring to the question of our duties in life such a 
spirit as this? If we do, we may feel the assurance that 
light will shine on our pathway as we walk steadily on 
in it. 

But what do we find concerning the respective genius 
of men and women in Swedenborg? So much that there 
is time but for the briefest references and extracts. 
First, then, we are told that man is a form of the under- 
standing, and that woman is a form of the will. That is 
to say, that man is of such a nature that he loves prima- 
rily those things which relate to knowledge and science. 


412 


NEW-CHURCH congress 


To him, in his natural state, the most important thing is 
the accumulation and storing up of facts in his mind. 
He considers it his privilege to investigate everything 
intellectually. He does not want to do anything unless 
he first understands why he should do it. 

Woman, on the other hand, being a form of the will, 
or voluntary principle, is representative of the affections, 
and values the exercise of them above everything else. 
If her heart is not satisfied her brain wearies. Love 
takes precedence, and this prompts her to act without 
her knowing why, or caring very much to know the 
reason why she would do some specific thing. 

Yet, in separating the two, man and woman, for the 
purpose of analysis, we have divided those whose very 
nature is indissoluble; for we may see that, in fact, some- 
thing of love, the feminine principle, must enter into 
everything a man does, and even into his thoughts, 
because he cannot do anything, or think of anything, 
unless prompted by the will, and something of the under- 
standing, the masculine principle, must be in every 
woman, or she would not know how to carry out her will. 
The essential difference between the two sexes is, that 
in man the understanding leads, but in woman this takes 
the second place. But there is no room for an arrogant 
assumption of superiority on the part of either man or 
woman; for, as Mrs. Browning says, “thought can never 
do the work of love.” Neither, we may add, can love be 
a substitute for thought, or either, by itself, bring any- 
thing to fruition. 

But what is taught by Swedenborg is, that man 
receives his understanding immediately from the Lord, 
and his love mediately through woman ; and that woman 
receives her love immediately from the Lord, and her 
understanding mediately through man. Now, when 
we get into any trouble it is because we do not always 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


413 


see clearly, or agree with each other, how to apply this 
doctrine to the affairs of life. Any woman, for instance, 
will accede to the truth, as an abstract proposition, that 
the understanding should lead the will to do its bidding; 
but let the concrete form of the understanding, repre- 
sented by an individual man, try to enforce this principle 
on her, and something wrong to her or in her is straight- 
way manifested. It may be the stubbornness of her 
unregenerated will asserting itself, indeed this must be 
part of the cause, but it is likely, also, that the man has 
let escape from him, without his being aware of it, some 
of that spirit of contempt for qualities of soul that he 
does not possess in his own right, so to speak, with which 
his external nature seems to be rather overstocked. 

That sex is of the soul, that it is not interchangeable 
or eradicable, we may perceive at any time that we are 
willing to arrange our lives on the basis of this truth. If 
we doubt this proposition, or live as though we would break 
through the barriers imposed upon us at our birth, we are 
committing a fatal error. In the twenty-second chapter of 
Deuteronomy we find this prohibition: “The woman shall 
not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall 
a man put on a woman’s garment ; for all that do so are 
abomination unto the Lord thy God.” Clearly this has 
little point to us in the mere sense of the letter, but con- 
sidered as having a deeper meaning, and referring to 
those spiritual qualities that clothe a person as with a 
mental garment representative of his true character, it 
teaches us that what is proper to one sex cannot be suited 
to the wants of the other. 

There is, however, work for both, and owing to their 
mutual subjection its successful performance depends as 
much upon the one as upon the other, for it is the prod- 
uct of both minds, with the two principles of masculine 
and feminine working together in harmony; though the 


414 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


objective expression is now by man and now by woman, 
as the quali ty of the work partakes more of the genius of 
the one sex, or of that of the other. Why then do we so 
often act as though we have interests that may be divided 
without a mutual loss? It is because we are yet in 
bondage to the spirit of selfishness. When we care more 
that a thing shall be done well, and the whole world gain 
by it, we shall let its merit tell its own story, and neither 
man nor woman will care to boast of having exclusive 
jurisdiction in any field; and when the love of use shall 
have dominion, regenerated souls will have that “spirit 
gauge” that will determine any question like that relating 
to the proper sphere of woman. 

There are times when a woman seems to have no 
choice left her but to take up an occupation which will 
bring her into competition with men on their own plane 
of life. If she does it from necessity, and not from a 
desire to take a man’s position before the world to the 
neglect of that which she could do better, that else will 
remain undone to somebody’s loss — we submit that from 
the standpoint of our present position this seems allow- 
able for her. Still, as we cannot speak from the knowl- 
edge that a more advanced state of regeneration will 
bring, it may be that we shall find some day that this, 
too, is a violation of the law which forbids us to wear 
“that which pertaineth to a man,” that the necessity 
believed in was but an appearance and not a reality. 

For more relating to this point we quote Sweden- 
borg: “That the wife cannot enter into the duties 
proper to the man, nor on the other hand, a man into 
the duties proper to the wife, is because they differ just 
as wisdom and its love, or as thought and its affection, 
or as understanding and its will ; in the duties proper to 
the men, understanding, thought and wisdom take the 
lead, but in the duties proper to wives, will, affection 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


415 


and love take the lead; and the wife from the latter does 
her duty, and the man from the former does his; where- 
fore their duties from their own nature are diverse, but 
still conjunctive in a series. It is believed by many that 
women can discharge the duties of men, provided they 
are initiated into them from the earliest age, in the man- 
ner that boys are; they may indeed be initiated into the 
exercise of them, but not into the judgment, on which 
the rectitude of the duties interiorily depends; where- 
fore those women who have been initiated into the 
duties of men are constrained in matters of judgment to 
consult the men, and then from their counsels, if they 
are free to decide as they please, they elect what favors 
their own love. It is also supposed by some that women 
are equally able to elevate the sight of their under- 
standing into the sphere of light into which men do, 
and to view things in the same altitude; which opinion 
has been induced in them through the thiugs written by 
certain learned authoresses; but these, when explored in 
the spiritual world in the presence of the authoresses, 
were found to be, not of judgment and wisdom, but of 
genius and grace; and the things which proceed from 
these two, from the elegance and neatness of the compo- 
sition of the words, appear as if sublime and erudite, 
yet only in the presence of those who call all ingenious- 
ness wisdom. The reason that men cannot enter into 
the duties proper to women, and discharge them aright, 
is because they cannot enter into the affections, which 
are altogether distinct from the affections of the men.” 
(C. L , 175.) 

There is far more in the passage just quoted than we 
are able to grasp in one hearing of it, or in several. We 
cannot fairly represent any writer by taking single para- 
graphs from his books. Particularly is this true of 
Swedenborg, for words used by him have often a peculiar 


416 


NEW -CHURCH CONGRESS 


significance which needs to be understood. Wisdom and 
love, understanding and will, which he puts in apposition, 
not in opposition be it noted, are those qualities of the 
spiritual man which are to bring under subjection the 
thoughts and the affections of the natural mind. While 
still bound to the love of the flesh-pots of Egypt men 
feel triumphant and women indignant upon reading 
assertions like those made in the paragraph just given; 
but when nourished with manna out of heaven, a new 
growth in humility leads the spirit not only to perceive 
but to rejoice in the superiority of others. The command 
is to “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteous- 
ness,” then follows the promise as to natural good 
Therefore, before this kingdom is established within our 
hearts, we have no right to expect to find our paths 
illuminated our duties defined, or our lives regulated in 
any way. 


IV 

WOMAN AS WIFE AND MOTHER 
BY MRS. S. S. SEWARD 

Woman in the home occupies a position of influence 
that is not circumscribed by the home limits. The home 
is the center of her Divinely-appointed sphere ; and in the 
loving discharge of duties that seem, perhaps, trivial, she 
is confirming in herself traits that make the truly 
womanly character, and impressing on the minds and 
hearts of all around her those important lessons in life 
that go so far toward moulding their natures and giving 
them the true bent. 

How important that woman should realize the sacred- 
ness of building up a home! If she did she could not 
venture to take the most important step in life without a 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


417 


sens© of the Divine presence and blessing. How naturally 
that would lead her to look forward to the family altar 
as a necessity, as well as a privilege, and how the sense 
of her strong desire would make the husband delight in 
taking his first steps in the Christian life, even if, in the 
pride of youth, he had before felt too self-reliant to 
experience the need of the Divine aid! 

With the family altar established when the home con- 
sists only of two, the home is being built on a sure 
foundation. In the gradual growth of two lives into 
one, little discordant notes will necessarily be struck at 
times. How important that the little differences should 
be explained before they have time to grow. Hand in 
hand at the family altar, a loving pair could never rise 
without forgiveness in their hearts, and a happy starting 
together in their respective duties. 

The first steps in home-making well taken, how beau- 
tifully and naturally the rest follow. The two lives so 
sweetly blended are blessed in bringing into being other 
precious lives. How can we overestimate the privilege 
of receiving from the Divine hand these precious proofs 
of His love, and being allowed to rear them for Him! 

The loving mother realizing the sacredness of her 
nrssion, will not wait for the precious burden to be laid 
in her arms, but from the moment of its conception will 
commend the life just started, and herself as the hand- 
maid of the Lord, to His tender care. With that holy 
thought in her heart from the beginning of the tender 
life, is the beginning of a mother’s care for her child. 
While she is preparing in sweet outward w'ays to receive 
the embodiment of her hopes, her thoughts and prayers 
are far more with the little soul that is through her 
receiving the impressions that will mould it, while it is 
being clothed with the body through which it will move 
and act all through its earthly life. 


418 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


After a mother has spent nine months in sweet 
co-operation with the Lord while he is making her the 
instrument of introducing a new life into the world, who 
can describe her happiness when the precious expression 
of His love is first placed in her hands; or, better still, 
when she sees it lying in the strong arms of its happy 
father, and feels that in this gift of the Lord’s love 
father and mother are really one. 

The care before birth was to guard herself from every 
unholy thought, act and expression, for the sake of the 
little one. After birth, the care is that the little one 
itself may be so surrounded by sweet and loving influ- 
ences that it may always be in states to receive the 
precious germs of spiritual life the Lord loves to store 
in earliest infancy. Realizing how important a part the 
mother has in this earliest guarding of the precious life, 
she could never consent to be separated from her child by 
delegating her duties to those who have riot a high sense 
of responsibility. Most precious germs are stored up by 
the Lord in infancy; and all through early childhood, 
when the self-life is apt to be awakened, the most loving 
care should be exercised to keep the child surrounded by 
good influences and in happy and obedient states. The 
mother makes a great mistake if she fails to use her 
most loving influence at this tender age. She could not 
put her little one in a motherless nursery if she knew 
she was losing her best opportunity to co-operate with 
the Lord in storing up the seeds of its future spiritual 
growth. 

In daily watching the development of the child, the 
mother is startled to find hereditary traits appearing. 
Her care should be not to hide them, but never to allow 
them to grow by exercise. The better she does this work 
the easier it will be for the child when he must accept in 
later life from her hand the responsibility of overcoming 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


419 


them in himself. He will have a hard fight in the battle 
of life, no matter how well she may do her work; but 
how cruel to add to what will surely remain for him to 
do by the consequence of her neglect. For her sake he 
may not say, “O, that my mother had checked this when 
I was young;” but he will have the right to think it, and 
will. 

There should be the most intimate confidence 
between the mother and child. In that is the mother’s 
greatest stronghold. Loving care knits the hearts of 
mother and child together and she is naturally its confi- 
dant. Let her never lose that place in its heart. At night 
when laying her little one to rest, there is a lull after the 
excitement of the day and the child can be reached as at 
no other time. Then is when the mother can lovingly 
impart heart lessons, and be sure of their being well 
received. Then is the time the child feels the Lord very 
near — and all sweet and gentle influences. It is then 
that the mother can better make it realize any little act 
of wrong than at any other time. Doing wrong is always 
more or less accompanied by states of self-defense. 
These are quieted in the sweet evening hour, and the 
spiritual vision is clearer. 

And after the child is old enough to be associated with 
others at school or elsewhere, the evening hour is the 
time the mother should lovingly draw out all the events 
of the day, and so detect any possible exposure to the 
child, and counteract its effects before there is any chance 
for the wrong to take root. 

Later it is the mother who, step by step, must be the 
one lovingly to answer all the questions that naturally 
arise in the children’s minds. It is from her they should 
learn the wonderful story of their birth as she only can 
tell it; first in a way adapted to their childlike percep- 
tions, and afterwards, as their minds are prepared to 


420 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


receive more fully. How many lives are marred and 
ruined by a mistaken thought on the part of parents 
that the subject is too delicate to be spoken of by them, 
while it is left to the accidental teaching of circumstances. 

When girls are prepared for the fuller knowledge of 
themselves, it is still the mother’s privilege to instruct 
them; but when boys arrive at the age of their fuller 
development, the father naturally goes hand in hand 
with the mother in their care in a fuller way than ever 
before. He then becomes not only father, but older 
brother, in the loving way in which he leads them into a 
realization of their manhood, and in his care for their 
preparation to enter into its duties. 

As the subject is the “Woman in the Home,” I have 
necessarily confined myself to her distinctive uses, but 
with the undertone to my thought of how perfect the 
mutual relation of husband and wife in the discharge of 
all these duties, and how really impossible to separate 
them! It is this cordially and happily working together 
that makes the happy home we wish our children to 
remember. Children have an object lesson in religion 
in their homes from their earliest perception. When we 
all gather around the altar, morning and evening, they 
should never be made to feel it is perfunctory, but an 
earnest desire on the part of the parents to commit them- 
selves and their little ones to the Lord’s loving care. 
When we meet around the family board and implore the 
Lord’s blessing on what he has provided for us, they 
should learn the lesson of thus early tracing every bless- 
ing to His hand. When from their earliest childhood 
they are taught to reverence the Lord, and to store their 
minds with its precious precepts, the influence can never 
be lost. 

Children know if their parents are living united and 
Christian lives, for there are no disguises in the home. 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


421 


Where the children have questions to be settled they 
will know that love and judgment must unitedly settle 
them, and thus it is easy for them to realize how father 
and mother are really one. The holiness of marriage 
can never be taught as effectively as by the example of 
parents in the home of their daily living. 

And how in the home, especially where there is a large 
family, can lessons of self-control be learned by daily 
living, — control of temper, of the indulgence of appetite, 
of habits of indolence, of carelessness and thoughtless- 
ness. If these faults are brought to the surface they can 
early be corrected in the family home, and not left to the 
severer teachings and harder experiences of after life. 

Above all, the home is the place for the exercise of all 
good affections. When the loving acts are for each other 
quietly in the home, not stimulated by the desire of out- 
side approval, the growth in right living is genuine, 
and can be relied upon, with the Lord’s help, in the 
formation of character. 

Let it not be thought that keeping a home is simply 
house -keeping, though that should be perfect; but home- 
making. Surrounding the loved ones with holy and 
happy influences, and providing them with literature that 
will best cultivate in them the habits and uses that we would 
have them carry through life; freely discussing with them 
at the table and by the fireside all questions of general 
interest, impressing them with earnest views on all sub- 
jects, and thus gradually preparing them to take their 
part in outside uses; helping them to limit their desires 
to the easy possibility of fulfillment,— thus teaching them 
the' important lesson of living wfithin their means, not 
only, but of sharing as they go along in all good work, 
trusting in the Divine blessing for the future as they have 
done in the past. 


422 


NEW' CHURCH CONGRESS 


With these ideas of home women can seldom fail to 
find an outlet for their affections. If they have no 
special home of their own they can help elevate the 
home in which they are placed, making it a center for 
loving work in the larger family outside. With no chil- 
dren of their own they can interest themselves in 
shielding and caring for neglected children in the larger 
family. They can lovingly shield the tender one from 
harm, can plead with the erring one, can in thousands of 
ways administer help and comfort, can guide the mental 
and spiritual growth of children, can throw the sweet 
mantle of charity over their erring sisters, and sweetly 
lead them back into right thoughts and habits. Woman 
can use her personal influence in true and womanly 
ways to help young men who are deprived of mothers 
and sisters to live true, manly and noble lives. Let 
woman exalt true manliness, making every man more 
truly manly for her influence, and every woman more 
truly womanly for her loving regard and sympathy. 

In the home the wife loves to avail herself of the 
advice of her husband as far as possible. Why, in the 
larger family, should she not make man realize how she 
loves to depend upon him for right judgment, rather 
than to make him feel how well she can do without him? 
She pleads with her children personally when they do 
wrong, and instructs them in sweet and womanly ways 
in which she feels her advantage; but in the discussion 
of vexed questions she loves to consult with her hus- 
band, and assents if her perceptions are in accord with 
his thought. She would not in the home be so happy in 
taking the lead in everything as in deferring to the hus- 
band in those things which belong naturally to him. 

So in society, which is the larger family, should 
woman wish every position of influence, or should she 
not unselfishly love to accord to man the things he 


423 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 

naturally loves best, and do well herself the things she 
naturally does best? Do we wish to do away with all 
the sweet amenities between the sexes ? Is it not better 
to look to the men for the proper discharge of their 
part of the world’s work, as well as have them look to 
us for the loving and womanly discharge of all such 
earnest duties as are unquestionably our own, and which 
can never be performed, if we neglect them ? 


Y 

EDUCATION FOR WIFE AND MOTHER 

BY MRS. J. R. PUTNAM 

“The purpose of the Lord in creating man was that 
He might raise up to Himself a heaven of angels.” So 
speaks the New Church to her children. The means by 
which this purpose may be ultimated is the education of 
our children in a knowledge of and a life according to 
the laws of heaven. The definite beginnings of this edu- 
cation, beginnings perfectly in accord with the writings 
of the Church, are clearly outlined in Froebel’s philoso- 
phy. “It is,” he declares, “the destiny and life work of 
all things to unfold their essence, — to reveal God in their 
external and transient being. It is the special destiny 
and life work of man, as a rational and moral being, to 
become clearly and fully conscious of his essence, of the 
Divine influence in him, to render this essence active, to 
yield himself to a conscious, free representation of the 
inner law of Divine unity.” “I would,” continues Froebel, 
“educate beings who with their feet stand rooted in God’s 
earth. I would so educate man that his head will reach 
into heaven, and there behold truth; in whose heart is 


424 


STEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


united both earth and heaven, — the varied life of nature 
and earth, and the glory and peace of heaven, God’s 
earth and God’s heaven.” 

It is most interesting to note how universally Froebel’s 
language will bear the application of the key to natural 
and spiritual relationships. One who has any knowledge 
whatever of the law of correspondences is constantly 
tempted to read between the lines, especially in the 
“Mother-Play Book,” and fancy that the coincidence is 
rational, rather than an intuitive perception of the fitness 
of things. 

With an educational aim such as has been indicated 
in this quotation, surely the requirements leading to its 
fulfillment will demand a method peculiar to itself. A 
plan is needed by which life’s inner essence and outer 
manifestations may be reconciled, and the true “ measure 
of a man, that is, of an angel,” may be understood. The 
practical question for us is, how shall we lead the 
children to know and express this law, already written in 
their members? We know that all power is in ultimates; 
what are the ultimates of the new education? How 
are we to bring its true theories down to the sensuous 
planes of our children’s lives in the nursery, the kinder- 
garten, the school? What avails it that we who have 
children to educate know that there is a spiritual origin 
and equivalent for all that we term force, form, color, 
number, direction, etc., etc., if with this knowledge there 
is not a clear, practical realization of the particulars of 
these attributes of matter, which, it is true, the young 
child receives only with sensuous perceptions, yet which, 
after all, are coming to be recognized as the bases of 
the “ invisible things of God?” 

A long experience with many children leads me to say 
that where there is one mother who feels and can supply 
the needs of the child in these matters, there are tens, 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


425 


aye, hundreds of parents who are blind and deaf and 
absolutely dumb before the questioning eyes of their 
children. Who knows better than we that “the will is 
the life of man?” Yet do we as New-Church parents 
demand anything of the educational institutions of our 
day and place in regard to the training of this will ? If 
it is true that the hand is the supreme organ of the will, 
how can we be so apathetic on the question of manual 
training? Why do we not demand and work for such 
teaching as -will enable our children to see accurately ? 
For without the right seeing and doing, we know there 
can be no at-one-ment in life. How few people realize 
that it makes any difference, or why it makes any differ- 
ence that baby should have one kind of toys rather than 
another — the desire being only that the child shall be 
safe and temporarily amused, forgetting altogether that 
these toys will furnish food for thought or else hinder 
the expression of thoughts. How few who have not 
studied Froebel remember that only in so far as the child 
is made to feel the law which binds everything in his 
environment into one great whole, will he be prepared 
for the life -lessons which are to link him to nature, to 
man, and to the Lord. 

Froebel’s gospel of motherhood is a strange thing! 
At times the mother laughs with joy at the simplicity of 
his philosophy, and she exclaims: “ I have always played 
with my child after this fashion; do I need an apostle of 
education to teach me these simple, natural lessons?” 
Yes, my friend, you, too, need the lessons, for you have 
.done only from instinct that which now needs doing from 
a calm, clear insight. Until the natural mother instinct 
has been regenerated and born anew on a mental as well 
as a spiritual plane; until we learn to see how each deed 
reacts upon a child’s consciousness, revealing that of 

28 


426 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


which we know nothing; until she can know and apply 
the laws of spiritual and mental as well as bodily develop- 
ment, a mother can not have more than a passing 
glimpse of that heavenly blessedness which it is her 
special privilege to hold in her mind, as well as ponder 
in her heart. 

Just as we read of that first garden which was 
watered by a mist that “ went up,” so in Froebel’s 
“ Paradise of Childhood ” are dimly seen and gently felt 
these truths which are the basis of all joyful, intelligent 
living with children. Let me illustrate: The “ Mother- 
Play Book” opens with a picture of the mother who 
feels her love and thought going out to her baby who 
lies before her. Through her playful, rhythmical guid- 
ing of the baby impulse to move, the little one comes 
gradually to feel that there is something outside of 
himself; that the indefinite, impulsive movement spring- 
ing from within, is led to a definite purpose by some- 
thing external to himself. To this feeling is added a 
further presentiment, for the mother voice tells or sings 
the story of the seed from which in the mill was mado 
the oil for the lamp which burns in the dark night, and, 
like her love, is constant, yearning always for the child’s 
true growth. Baby, too, must come into the movement of 
life, and with feeling and thought prepared for it, must 
enter upon life’s uses and stamp out the oil (the good) 
for himself. 

In every play in this unique book, Froebel recognizes 
that from the beginning of its development each sense, 
each faculty is to be trained, not only to receive outer 
benefits, but to express its inner affection in a definite 
ultimate form; thus these eight uses of sensuous things 
become “Fine steps whereby the queenly soul comes 
down from her bright throne to view the mass she hath 
dominion over.” 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


427 


To the law given by Moses has now come the Gospel 
of Grace and Truth which have come from the Lord 
Jesus Christ; and Froebel’s “Science of Education” 
offers to every one, especially to every woman, an oppor- 
tunity to learn this lesson from the heart and by heart. 
It is time that every woman everywhere should recognize 
the fact that it makes every difference what our babies 
first see and hear and smell and taste and touch. It 
makes a great deal of difference how our boys and girls 
shall learn reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, his- 
tory and literature. We are too ready to take “chances” 
on our children’s school experiences, and know too little 
what should be done and what should be left undone. 
So few women to whom little children come realize that 
there is auy science of education, or that a knowledge of 
the laws of a child’s mental and spiritual growth are 
written in his actions . In all of the professions one 
can now find help in almost any college in our land, but 
our girls are still considered well educated when they 
have mastered Greek, Latin, higher mathematics, even 
though they know nothing of the psychology of child- 
hood. The experiments of vivisecting and probing the 
minds and hearts of our children still go bungling on, 
and the old master’s call, “ Come let us live with the 
children,” is looked upon as a truism hardly worth utter- 
ing. This scientific study of childhood is almost never 
undertaken, except by those who expect to teach as a 
means of livelihood, and too often the larger number of 
the teachers in our public schools give no thought to it, 
though the need of it is plainly to be seen every day by 
those whose eyes have been opened. 

Of all people to whom this study should be a delight, 
the New-Church woman should find especial pleasure. 
With eyes accustomed to look for spiritual counterparts, 


428 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


she would readily and eagerly see in it a new demon- 
stration of that light and love which is making all things 
new. To her especially should the old ways of dealing 
with children’s minds as vessels to be filled with dry facts 
be recognized as inadequate and irrational. To her the 
symbolic stage of childood has a special significance, and 
our young girls, at least, should be taught those things 
which make for an intelligent, holy appreciation of the 
duties of motherhood; for whether she ever has children 
of her own or not, no woman lives who at some period of 
her life is not likely to be called to minister to little 
children; and of all pitiable sights, the woman who is 
out of sympathy with childhood, who is -yet called by 
the force of circumstances to this office, is one of the most 
painful, and one for which at this day there is little 
excuse. 

In the motto of the song of the Flower Basket, Froebel 
says: 

“ Try to give outward form to thought; 

That stirs a child’s heart day by day; 

For even a child’s love left unsought, 

Unfostered, droops and dies away.” 

So it is, I think, with this talent for “mothering’* 
children. It lies at the very core of every woman’s life 
in greater or less measure; what is needed is that it shall 
be trained to a wise use. Unused power is wasted power, 
and the joy which comes when we “work with the Lord 
at the fountain head ” (that is with the beginnings of a 
child’s life) only a mother or she who stands in the 
mother’s place, can know. 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


429 


VI 

THE POSITION AND INFLUENCE OF WOMAN IN THE 
RELIGIOUS WORLD 

BY MBS. T. F. HOUT8 

The agitation of these questions in regard to woman’s 
rightful place in the world is itself proof t iat her condi- 
tions have hitherto been out of harmony with the true 
order in which the human race was created. In a state 
of true order each would find his and her own place and 
work, with no conflict or thought of the superioril y of the 
one above the other, and with no disposition to define 
and limit the sphere of the other’s activities. It is only 
necessary to refer to the facts of the past to prove the 
importance of giving this question a fair and impartial 
consideration, that we may be better fitted to deal with 
the problems of the present and the issues that may arise 
in the future. 

The history of our race is not one continuous march 
of progress and development. There have been revolu- 
tionary changes, not only in the globe we inhabit, but in 
the mental and moral structure of mankind. The Divine 
Father has adapted His revelations as well as Providential 
leadings, to the changed conditions, so as to avert evil 
and lead to the greatest possible good. By looking into 
the laws of adaptation we may see reasons why they are 
not perpetual, and while this new age brings new 
problems to the front, the treatment of which may help 
or hinder progress in the near future, with which we are 
the most closely connected; for the over-turning process 
must go on until true order is attained. Can we find a 
rational answer as to why woman has not always stood 
at the side of man, — his true “helpmeet” and companion, 


430 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


as in Eden? We are told that there was perfect harmony 
in their nature between the will and the understanding. 
‘‘Being also internal men, external objects were only of 
interest and value as they led them to reflect on internal 
and heavenly things, that thus their thought might be led 
to the Lord, — their all in all. As their marriages were 
their chief sources of happiness, they were led from them 
to reflect on the celestial marriage of love and wisdom; 
whence, and on this account, they called the understand- 
ing in the spiritual man male and the will female , which 
when acting in unity were spoken of as married. From 
that church was derived a form of speaking which came 
afterwards into general use, whereby the Church itself, 
by reason of its affection for goodness, was called 
“daughter,” “virgin,” and also “ici/e.” (A. C. 54.) 

When man had lost innocence, all the fashion of 
the thoughts of his heart was only evil (Gen. vi: 5), and 
he turned to the love of self and corporeal things. “Then 
man had no will, but mere lust instead of will, which is 
supposed by him to be will and so called. The reason 
why daughters signify the things of the will, and, where 
there is no will, lust, and why sons signify the things of 
the understanding, and where there is no understanding 
of truth, phantasies, is because the female sex is such 
and so formed that the will reigns in them more than the 
understanding. . . . Whereas the male sex is so formed 
that the intellect or reason rules. . . . Hence the mar- 
riage of the two is as of the will and understanding in 
every man; and since at this day there is no will of good 
remaining, but only mere cupidity, and still something 
intellectual or rational is capable of being communicated; 
this is the reason why so many laws are enacted in the 
Jewish church concerning the prerogative of the husband 
(vir.) and the obedience of the wife.” (A. C. 568.) 


WOMAN IN THE CHUKCH 


431 


This, it is to be noted, refers to the time previous to 
the coming of the Lord, and the establishment of the 
Christian Church, when there was no internal or spiritual 
church, and the externals of worship were only repre- 
sentative. And yet the Jewish Church had its wise 
women — mothers in Israel, and prophetesses sometimes 
raised up to be deliverers and avengers; — Huldah, to 
whom King Josiah sent to inquire of the Lord, answered 
the messengers with all the authority of a true and 
recognized prophet; speaking both words of warniDg and 
of comfort with the usual prophetic declaration, “thus 
saith the Lord.” The songs of Miriam and Hannah are 
given as a part of the inspired Word. 

All students of the New- Church writings know that, 
after the fall, by woman is signified the Church as to the 
proprium which it loved, and by the husband is denoted 
the rational (principle) because in consequence of the 
destruction of wisdom and intelligence, by eating of the 
tree of knowledge, no higher principles remain.” (A. C. 
265.) That the representative character of woman 
changes when different states of the Church and different 
planes of the mind are treated of, is made clear in the 
Writings. (A. C. 770 and 8,994.) 

Now we have entered upon a new age. The discus- 
sion of this question grows out of the new order of 
things. Now the proclamation has gone, and is going 
forth, “ Behold, I make all things new.” Nowhere else 
has this message come with such awakening and thrilling 
power as into the heart of woman; and nowhere does it 
meet such responses as with the Annas, who have waited 
and worshiped in the courts of the temple night and 
day, waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. In all tie 
world, especially the Christian world, women have been 
wakiDg up, shaking off, little by little, the thralldom of 
ignorance and superstition, looking about for new fields 


432 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


of activity, where these awakened faculties could come 
into fuller play, — showing great eagerness for knowledge, 
scientific, rational and spiritual, — and with the acquisi- 
tion, earnestness and tact in adapting it to the uses of 
life, and making it serve for practical good. 

What, then, is to be woman’s work and influence in 
the religious world, in this new age the spirit of which is 
abroad as the dawning of the morning of a new day ? 
It will not do to take a few paragraphs from the revela- 
tions given to us, and apply the letter of them to meet 
all cases, ignoring the broader spirit of the general 
teachings of the Church. Neither can we judge from the 
position the man of the Church has taken in the past; 
for “every Church in its beginning becomes acquainted 
only with the general principles of doctrine; for it is 
then in its simplicity, or, as it were, in its childhood. In 
the course of time it adds particulars, which are partly 
confirmations of general principles, partly additions 
which are not repugnant to the general principle, — and 
also explanations, that open contradictions may be ana- 
lyzed and not clash with what common sense dictates.” 
(A. C. 4,720.) And again: “The New Church in its 
beginning will be external.” (A. E. 403.) 

How often in the past have isolated messages from 
the Word of the Lord, applied in a natural and external 
sense, been made to sanction the most malignant forms 
of hatred, persecution and oppression, until, by the 
broader spirit of a later age, the common perceptions of 
justice given to those outside of the Church, these church- 
men were led to read their own Scriptures in a new light, 
and to see and acknowledge their errors. From the 
present outlook it seems probable that other questions, 
particularly those in regard to woman, are to be solved 
in the same way. 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


433 


Let us turn now to the contemplation of a state of 
true order as described in the Writings of the New Church. 
In the true Church, the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, 
love and truth are not to be separated. “The city was 
pure gold, like unto pure glass, signifies, therefore, that 
the all of that Church is the good of love flowing in with 
light out of Heaven from the Lord . . . love formed by 
the truths of wisdom.” (A. R. 912.) '‘All the laws of 
truth and rectitude flow from celestial principles, or from 
the order of life of the celestial man, — in an especial 
manner does the law of marriage.” The law that there 
shall be one husband and one wife was not only revealed 
to the men of the most ancient Church, but also inscribed 
on their internal man. “From the beginning of creation 
God made them male and female.” (Mark x: 5-9. 
A. C. 163.) 

In the past it has been said the man represents the 
Lord and the wife the Church; “ the husband does not 
represent the Lord and the wife the Church; because 
both together — the husband and the wife — constitute the 
Church.” (C. L., 125.) That perfect and equal freedom 
should be accorded to woman in the home is evidenced 
from H. H. 369. “ Every one, man as well as woman, . 

possesses understanding and will; but still with man the 
understanding predominates, and with woman the will; 
and the character of the person is determined by what 
predominates. But in marriages in heaven there is no 
predominance.” “What is done from a principle of love 
truly conjugal, this is done from freedom on both sides, 
for all freedom is from love. To be willing to exercise 
rule in marriage destroys genuine love, for it takes away 
its freedom, thus also its delight. The delight of exer- 
cising rule which succeeds in its place begets disagree- 
ment and sets minds at enmity and causes evils to take 


434 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


root, according to the quality of dominion on one part 
and the quality of servitude on the other.” (A. C., 
10,173.) 

If freedom and equality are fundamental in a true 
family life, they are not less the Divine order in true 
Church life. “ Who can be forced to believe and to love ? 
The internal is so averse to force that it turns itself 
away. The reason of this is that the internal wills to be 
at liberty and loves liberty, for liberty is of one’s love or 
life. Therefore, when liberty perceives itself to be 
forced, it withdrawn itself, as it were, within itself, and 
averts itself, regarding force as its enemy; for the love 
which makes a man’s life is exasperated and causes him 
to think that he is not his own. The reason why a man’s 
internal is such is grounded in the laws of the Divine 
Providence of the Lord that a man should act from free- 
dom according to reason.” (D. P., 136.) 

“ The male and female were created to be the essential 
form of the marriage of good and truth ” (C. L. 100.) 
Affection, or the qualities specially embodied in woman 
are needed in everything of religion, as is abundantly 
illustrated in the following selections from the Arcana: 
‘‘When faith is disjoined from love, the desire of his 
own praise or gain rules a man’s heart and moves him to 
speak.” (A. C. 712.) “ The will comprehends in it 

intellectual things, but the understanding does not com- 
prehend in it those of the will.” (A. C. 712.) “ By truths 
no one is in any sort instructed, but by the affection of 
truths; for truths without affection flow indeed into the 
ear like sound, but they do not enter into the memory; 
what causes them to enter into the memory and remain 
therein is affection.” (A. C. 3,066.) “If there be no 
affection, or, what is the same thing, no love, there would 
not be any perception.” “ The Church is never predicated 
of the intellect, but invariably of the will; for the 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


435 


scientific or rational principle of faith by no means con- 
stitutes the Church, or the man of the Church, these 
being formed by charity, which belongs to the will, from 
which is derived all that is essential. Thus neither do 
doctrines constitute the Church, unless both generally 
and particularly they have relation to charity. The 
Church of the Lord, like the Kingdom of the Lord in the 
heavens, has its ground solely in love and charity” 
(A. C. 809.) “ Science and knowledge are represented by 
men, but affections by women. It is according to Divine 
order that men should be in scientifics, but women solely 
in affections.” (A. C. 8,994.) 

On the different planes of life, woman’s work will be 
different and varied, as is illustrated by the comparison 
of barbarous peoples. Woman’s field of activity is graded 
according to the degree of civilization attained. There 
is every reason to expect an increase in the “diversity of 
gifts” with both men and women as the influence of the 
new age advances. 

If there were prophetesses in the Jewish Church, as 
we have seen, and is also shown in Judges 4:4; and in 
the early Christian Church, Acts 21:9; aDd if the history 
of the Churches follows in successive order; when the 
day of Pentecost comes again, — not in the exact form of 
the first, but not the less really because on a more interior 
plane, and from the reception of more interior truth, — is 
it not to be expected that the accompanying gifts shall 
rest equally upon men and women when it is directly 
asserted (Joel 2: 28, 29) that in the “last days,” when 
the spirit is poured out upon all flesh, the daughters of 
the Church shall prophesy? “To pour out the Spirit 
upon them, is to instruct concerning truths; and to 
prophesy denotes to teach and proclaim these truths.” 
(A. C. 4,682.) 


436 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


When this inspiration comes, or the Lord sends a 
message of comfort, as He did to the sorrowing disciples 
when He appeared first to woman after his resurrection 
and said, “Go tell my brethren,” — who shall fix rules as 
to how and when and where the message should be 
spoken ? Why may not woman be left free to follow the 
instincts within her in finding her right place and work 
in religious and in other fields ? Is not the law of her 
God written upon her heart, teaching her through her 
own interpretations of His revelations, by her perceptions, 
and by her inclinations and adaptations, what she ought 
and can best do ? 

“ The intelligence of woman is in itself modest, 
elegant, pacific, yielding, soft, tender.” (C. L. 216.) 
From the very structure of her nature, then, man is the 
gainer from inviting and admitting womanly co-operation, 
especially in all efforts to make religion practical, — where 
truths are to be applied for the correction of the evils of 
life. Here is a field requiring ready sympathy, unfailiDg 
patience, steadfast faith, hope and courage and unceasing 
effort. It has been recently said by a New-Church editor: 
“ The work of the woman is all of the heart, — she must 
obtain her inspiration from the Divine love.” It is equally 
true that she must be instructed by means of the Divine 
wisdom. It is for her also to delight in truth, and study 
to know the truth, not for the sake of delighting the mind 
with the sciences of truth, but for the good to be gotten 
out of the practice of it, which is real wisdom. 

Among all the organized efforts that women are 
making for the suppression of intemperance and other 
evils, and for Church uses at home and missionary work 
abroad, I think there are few cases where it would not 
be better for men and women to work together. In tem- 
perance, for example, the work women are trying to do 
for men and boys, in seeking to remove external tempta- 


WOMAN IN THE CHUKCH 


437 


tioDS, is much less effective than in working with them, 
seeking to infuse nobler aspirations and draw out manly 
qualities. While man will resent the first as an interfer- 
ence with his freedom, he may welcome the influence 
that w r ill stir him to do the work for himself. 

While we deprecate the exclusiveness and arrogance 
man has shown in denying to woman the freedom and 
equality before the law that he claims as his rightful inher- 
itance, and the injury done to domestic and social life by 
the organization of secret brotherhoods, and political, busi- 
ness and social clubs without end, let us not try to correct 
the evil by a counter movement in the same direction, and 
resort to woman’s clubs, where the interest and work will 
tend to lessen the sympathy between men and women in 
their home and social life. Let one great end be kept in 
view, to elevate and purify the marriage relation, to 
make home the seminary of heaven. The maternal 
instinct will no doubt be intensified with the increased 
reception of the influences of the new heaven and the 
formation of the new earth, so that the love and care for 
children will form the principal employment during a 
considerable part of most women’s lives, but not to the 
exclusion of social and religious interests. 

Woman will find her place more readily and do her 
work better when man is willing to let her have the same 
freedom he asks for himself. This is not saying that she 
can or will want to do his work. Some may attempt it, 
but will sooner find their error if left in freedom. Says 
a well known New-Church writer: “ There will be no 
permanent rescue of woman from her sufferings and her 
degradation until woman herself, indoctrinated into the 
spiritual truths of the New Church, shall learn her true 
position and office. She will then discover that her gen- 
uine work is not to save herself, but to redeem man; and 
that in her redemption of man she will most effectually 


438 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


save herself and purify and elevate the social life of the 
race. . . . Let her plunge her whole soul into 

home duties and social reforms, into sanitation, education, 
and personal and vital religion. . . . She 

is in a deep sleep, disturbed by distressful dreams, from 
which she can only be awakened by the light of the new 
heavens which is faintly beginning to dawn upon the 
earth. In that light, which is the light of the New 
Church, man and woman are one and inseparable.” (Dr. 
W. H. Holcomb.) 


YII 

THE WOMANLY NATURE 

MISS SELMA WARE PAINE 

As the lapidary, when he tests his jewels, puts aside 
those he knows are faultless, may we not, also, put aside 
from discussion, the admitted propositions: First, that, 
all other things being equal, the life of true marriage is 
higher and fuller than the single life, and, second, that 
the difference between men and women is innate, inerad- 
icable and eternal? Then, as the jeweler selects some 
brilliant gem that has a slight flaw, and says, “How 
beautiful it is, even if it is not perfect;” so I should like 
to have admitted that the single life lived aright offers 
more opportunities for usefulness and joy than any one 
being is able to improve. What is necessary is that 
there be the marriage of good and truth within us. If it 
is there, we are quite independent of present external 
conditions. Life can flower and fruit in any. 

Be the cause what it may, there are in our country 
thousands of unmarried women. They are, many of 
them, in the prime of their working activity, and must 
have some outlet for their power besides the home -life of 


WOMAN IN THE CHUKCH 


439 


the wife and mother. They are perfectly happy and 
contented. They only look out on the great world and 
say, “I have my one, my three, my five talents given me. 
My Lord is not a hard master. What shall I do so that 
when he comes I shall hear, ‘Well done, good and faith- 
ful servant?”’ What she shall do with her talents; that 
is the question that confronts not only such, but every 
living soul. 

There is not room for this host of women in the 
households of their married sisters. There the mother is 
appointed to rear her children. Then again the children 
grow, oh, so quickly; become themselves family centers, 
and the mother has once more unused help to offer. To 
this army are to be also added, the widows, and those, 
happily few, whom their husbands cannot or will not sup- 
port. Nor is this the case in America only, — in nearly 
every land of Europe there is a large class who are obliged 
to join the breadwinners if they would have bread. 

In the discussion of this question we have to consider 
not only the fundamental doctrines as to the nature of 
men and of women contained in Swedenborg’s works, but 
the application of them to existiDg conditions in society. 
The doctrine of “marriage love” is at the root of the sub- 
ject, in every phase of it. But it is the nature of roots 
to be hidden. Let the botanists study their construction, 
if he will, but when he does this, the special plant he 
studies must cease to live. At the root of our earthly 
lives is the united action of heart and lungs. How exactly 
they move without our heeding! Let the doctors, the 
physiologists study their laws, but too great a conscious- 
ness of their action prevents its perfection. 

We are all men and women, it is true, but we are, also, 
human beings in whom is the man and the woman. 
Woman is not all will and man all understanding, or, if 
we look at the deeper and higher celestial, men all good 


440 


NEW* CHURCH CONGRESS 


and woman all truth. Each man has will and under- 
standing, each woman, also; or as Swedenborg expresses 
it, No. 568 of the Arcana, she is “ such and so formed 
that will reigns more than the understanding.” 

We see glorious parallels to this everywhere. In the 
old idea of the heavens, made to suit the Ptolemaic 
system, we read of cherubim and seraphim. Each was 
love and truth, but the seraphim had love in excess, the 
cherubim, truth; yet each was a perfect angel. 

I know of no conception which the human mind is 
able to grasp so overpoweringly lofty, as that of Sweden- 
borg’s Grand Man. Each world in the starry universe 
peopled with beings different among themselves, and yet 
so alike in general that its world and its heaven must fill 
one particular part in the harmonious whole, the Maximus 
Homo, and can fill no other. Yet is each separate being 
in each separate sphere a whole in himself, or, in Sweden- 
borg’s words, “ In the most perfect form the whole is as 
the parts, and the parts as the whole.” If, in the 
inhabitants of Mercury, the memory of things not 
material is so marked that they are as memory to the 
whole great man, yet each inhabitant has eye and ear and 
heart to exercise. 

It is on all our powers that the common exterior 
duties of life make demand. In whatever is chosen the 
woman will do it as a woman, the man as a man. The 
wiser each one is, the more will she adjust her manifest 
duty to her nature. To the man-soul, to the woman- soul is 
given the great unquenchable freedom of choice between 
good and evil; to each the judgment to decide what is 
good or evil for him or her. If the judgment happens 
to be weaker in any one or in all women, that does not 
excuse her except as her free choice counsels her, in each 
instance, to use that of a man. She must walk by the 
light of her own prayerful, God-led reason just as she 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


441 


must tread the earth by the light of her own earthly 
sight. With this freedom given the individual soul was 
also given the obligation to use it. That can be neither 
evaded or forced from her. “The will if it does not will 
it, cannot be extinguished ” says Dante. 

It is often, nay, in the true sense, always, the privi- 
lege of freedom that it serves voluntarily. Its highest 
master is good and truth from the Lord; its next highest 
master is what holds or interprets that good in a fuller 
or a different measure. It may be the husband that 
does this for the wife, it may be the wife that does this 
for the husband, and low indeed would be that nature 
which would have anything but joy in being led by what 
is higher. To recognize superiority is a burst of sun- 
shine in life that warms it and makes it luminous. 

It is, then, to the creature of will and understanding, 
of good and truth, to the men and women alike that the 
greater part of Swedenborg’s instruction is given. 
Again and again he reiterates the duties of human 
beings, but very seldom does he distinguish between 
those of men and women. 

After the golden rule it is written, “ For this is the 
Law and the Prophets,” — and after the two Great Com- 
mandments “ On these hang the Law and the Prophets.” 
The rest of the Bible teachings are but details of the 
applications of these rules. They hold Religion itself. 
Whatsoever good is at variance with them, is so only in 
seeming. In all Religions, the essential, living part is 
eternally true and of universal application. In the 
Upanishads are truths that are illuminated Swedenborg. 
Every human being that ever existed, that ever will exist, 
can guide himself by the two great commandments forever 
and ever. 

Swedenborg has, also, points from which hang his 
law and his prophets. His doctrine of use is certainly 

29 


442 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


one. I think we wrong him deeply by applying any minor 
detail of his instruction so as to conflict with his general 
spirit. We take from the Diary: “Women can enun- 
ciate with affection but not teach,” and yet, again and 
again, he dwells on the province of women in heaven in 
teaching. It is also quoted: “Women who think like 
men concerning religious things, speak much concerning 
them, and still more, if they preach in assemblies, destroy 
the womanly nature.” May this not mean if they do it 
“like men?” That we agree is an abomination. 

Often very fortunate is that woman whom her evident 
use leads in what her world recognizes in her day as the 
way of her womanly nature. It calls her, she must 
follow. She treads a beaten path. A strong arm pro- 
vides for her the shelter she loves. It holds her back 
from the stifling dust of the mart, from the irksome toil 
of money -getting. Her troubles come. They are of a 
character men can understand. She struggles with them, 
and if she is victor, those about her rise and call her 
blessed. 

But there are other women to whom their evident 
use says, “ You cannot walk in the common highway. 
You are not most fit for that. You must pass, alone, 
through the forest. You must climb this mountain. 
You must descend into that dark and hidden valley.” 
Or, perhaps it says, “Not for you the quiet of a sheltered 
home until you have earned it. For you, the glare of 
the counting-house; for you to sweeten the fevered air of 
the hospital; for you, to fix visions of beauty on canvas; 
for you to use the power of command in overseeing 
workmen; for you, to give in the pulpit the message that 
burns within you.” Her duty calls her, she must follow. 
Perhaps the voice is stern and sounds like words of 
exile. Perhaps it is pleasing to her ear. That makes 
no difference. She is as worthy of honor as her sister 


WOMAN IN THE CHUKCH 443 

if she obeys; as unworthy, if she refuses. Of one thing 
only let her beware, that she mistake not the voice. 

Says Victor Hugo in grand verse that I fear I 
render into stumbling prose: “ When the evil and the 
good couple that beset us, fixing on us their eyes, demand- 
ing of us our aid, show to our steps two ways — one that 
descends, one that mounts. . . . shame to the man 

that does not choose. He who starts back may cause an 
immense ruin. Great, little, God alone knows where 
force commences, alone where feebleness ends. When 
the mountain gives way, the grain of sand, if it could 
prevent the fall, is responsible for the crimes of the block 
of granite.” 

The teaching is affirmed that the wife cannot enter 
into the proper duties of the husband; but jnst what all 
those proper duties in their superficial form may be for 
each, time must decide by its need. One thing is certain, 
nothing can ever reverse the primal love of the wife for 
husband and child. This is the essential; the point 
from which the law and prophets hang, but the new 
ways in which she can best serve them with that love, 
thought and experience show her as the centuries pass. 

Is it not of the first importance that we recognize the 
temporal, the accidental, and accommodate ourselves to 
that under higher law& ? The world moves always in its 
changeless course around the sun, but on earth the sea- 
sons come and go and no two are alike. In some years 
our battle with the cold must be longer than in others, 
and we must lay in more abundant store. There is thus 
ever new variety under old perfect laws. There is a 
constant creation of new needs. Old forces must fill 
them, and we almost always find these forces are wait- 
ing, throbbing with repressed activity. 

That only can be the perfect Religion that holds in it 
fidelity to the eternal and adaptability to the new needs 


444 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


of life. How, tried by this standard, the Divine Evan- 
gels shine out, how the Epistles take a second rank. 
Nowhere in the Gospels is the place of woman prescribed 
or limited. To her is each of its everlasting teachings. 
She must not receive her seed among thorns or in stony 
places. 

New -Churchmen have been accused of considering 
their Religion the best of all. I can not enter into the 
thought of the man who made the criticism. Is not 
the Religion of every man that which he believes to have 
the most of truth ? Is it not absolutely necessary to the 
existence of the soul that it hold itself open to the truth 
from whatsoever quarter it may come? If I sincerely 
thought Mohammedanism offered me the highest good, 
ought I not to be a Mohammedan to-morrow, nay, am I 
not one from the moment I recognize its superiority ? So 
to us who belong to the New Church because it appears 
to us as the highest, we are filled with fear least our lives 
bear no evidence to its priceless gift. 

We think of the glory of its positive teachings; that 
it builds up so much and tears down so little. We 
think of the sublimity of its story of the universe; of its 
explanation of the Divine Humanity. We think of its 
implicit trust in Divine Providence which makes beautiful 
life and death and all before and after. We think of the 
grand simplicity of daily living when we know that faith 
cannot exist without good works. We think of the inex- 
pressible meaning and extension of Correspondences, illum- 
inating the dark, revealing the hidden, and harmonizing 
the contradictory ; covering what is too fine for us to touch, 
tempering what is too dazzling for us to see, and protect- 
ing the holy, descending to the least, rising to the highest 
and binding all together — and almost faint with unutter- 
able gratitude we say “We have a goodly heritage.” 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


445 


It is on this account we would wish to have stripped 
from our ideas of the Church all that would hamper any 
living soul. It is dreadful when the conscience stands 
on one side and the directions of the Church on the other : 
when the one says, “ This;” the other, “ That.” Be sure 
if it happens tli6 Church is misinterpreted or misunder- 
stood. Follow the spirit of the two Great Commandments. 
Follow Swedenborg’s larger teachings. Do not hide 
your talent — and if a humble, reverent and prayerful 
soul, with an eye single to the truth, be yours, man or 
woman, you can not go far astray. 

To-day is the fourteenth of September. My thoughts 
are led to the great Dante, the anniversary of whose 
death it is. I think of his Paradise. I think of his 
regal intellect, his mighty genius, his perfect faith 
struggling in a loyalty - at once pathetic and sublime 
with the truth the Church received in his age. What 
incomparable ingenuity he shows to reconcile the love of 
God with the explanation his Church gave of the atone- 
ment. He does wonderfully well, but, thinking of it, 
my unutterable gratitude grows deeper yet for the truth 
that has been given our day. Oh! may the Church never 
trammel it by the shadow even of a dogmatic chain! 


VIII 

THE MINISTRY OF GENTLENESS 
BY MISS EDNA C. SILVER 

If we go back 3,000 years we find one of the most 
remarkable characters in song or story the classic deity, 
Minerva. Gradually evolved from the pagan mind in a 
period of unknown antiquity, she was vivified and 
strongly individualized by the genius of Homer, and 


446 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


became truly an immortal. The Greek philosophers 
looked upon her as symbolic; Homer’s conception of her 
is more difficult to solve; but one thing is certain, within 
the panoply of the warrior maiden, beneath the super- 
natural authority of the goddess, one detects the woman. 
She was a celibate, but not from asceticism. Most of 
the Olympian divinities were Epicureans, none were 
Stoics; three — Minerva, Apollo and Diana — were dis- 
tinguished by purity of life. Closely allied to this 
characteristic was another, a quality which is almost 
more of the heart than of the head, viz: keen moral 
perception; hence Homer’s reiterated description, “clear- 
eyed Minerva.” 

Observe her introduction in the Odyssey where her 
earliest solicitude is a wifely one. She makes a plea for 
the home; her heart is distressed at its invasion by the 
intrusive suitors, at its loss through the absence of 
Ulysses detained by Calypso. 

Note a second phase of her character. While pos- 
sessing regal power, scarcely second to that of Jupiter, 
and holding time and space under supernatural control, 
she is still seen at her best when presiding as a sort of 
pagan guardian angel over the young Telemaehus. 
Other deities, even the wholly perverted Yenus, can pro- 
tect mortals from physical danger; Minerva saves from 
moral danger also. She coaxes, pets, chides, instructs, 
warns, encourages and inspires Telemaehus in truly 
motherly fashion. She does not uniformly appeal to the 
higher motives as would a Christian guardian angel; 
nevertheless paganism was striving toward an ideal 
motherhood in Minerva’s approximately enlightened 
ministry of gentleness. 

Not far from the time when the Grecian bard was 
singing the praises of Olympus, the Hebrew psalmist 
was singing the praises of heaven in inspired verse. In 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


447 


depicting the glories of victory, David exclaims, “Thy 
gentleness hath made me great;” (Psalm xxii:36.); a 
striking acknowledgment from the lips of the warrior 
king of the Divine source of all real strength. 

A thousand years later the world saw T this quality of 
gentleness exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ, a life 
whose luminous beauty stands in vivid relief against a 
background of violence and hate. With all power in 
heaven and in earth, He appeared neither in the wind 
nor in the earthquake, but under the gentle guise of 
infancy, leading men later by the ministry of lowly serv- 
ice, gentle teaching and kindly touch; laving the tired 
feet; pointing to the humility and ingenuousness typi- 
fied by the child; laying his hands in blessing on the 
little ones. The terms of childhood lingered on his lips; 
at the “Last Supper” He called the sturdy fisherman His 
“little children.” (John xiii :33.) 

His spirit lingered when the bodily life ceased. The 
character of the early Christians was warmed and soft- 
ened by the sunshine of the Divine Presence, so that even 
paganism paid tribute to this spiritual element, exclaiming, 
“ See how these Christians love one another,” while Roman 
civilization aided Christianity in partly subduing the 
sterner nature of mankind. But gradually the Christ- 
life among the people grew feebler, and the infusion of 
Northern barbarism revived the turbulent spirit, so that 
brute force again gained sway. 

Now this superior physical power gave men, in contra- 
distinction to women, a great advantage. As it was con- 
stantly called into requisition, and was at a premium, 
those who chiefly possessed it formed a strongly dominant 
element. This same empire of force also governed the 
relation of men to each other, making the unarmed peas- 
antry tributary to the mail-clad baron. It must not be 
forgotten that brute force was in many ways used benefi- 


448 


NEW -CHURCH CONGRESS 


cently, as in the industrial arts; but found an enormous 
outlet in organized military life, or in independent fight- 
ing, so that violence and unrest crowd the annals of those 
days. 

Gentleness, although holding minor sway, still found 
expression. When the warrior, bruised and torn and help- 
less, was borne home, loved ones were there to undo some 
of the harm wrought. It was precisely the recognition 
of this softer element that constituted chivalry at its best ; 
it was a tribute to gentleness and tenderness in an age of 
war and turbulence. It gave great impetus to — in fact 
I think it created — the worship of the Virgin Mary; 
especially as the Deity of mediaeval theology — a God of 
justice rather than of mercy — scarcely touched the finer 
sympathies. 

As the centuries rolled on, brute force diminished in 
value. Water and wind were more and more used for 
motive power, and the triumph of mind over matter 
increased. To-day water power only holds its sway by 
being itself converted into electrical energy. Thus more 
subtle physical forces are gaining the ascendant over 
lower, while simultaneously the presence of invisible 
forces on a still higher plane is becoming more and more 
manifest. 

Now in this subordination not primarily of brute force 
to higher material force, but of all material forces to the 
sway of finer spiritual forces, religious, ethical and social ; 
in this subordination lies woman’s opportunity for 
extended service. Her privilege is hereby vastly 
increased for fostering the better elements of human 
life — keenness of sympathy, clearness of intuition, quick- 
ness of response; all these are urgently demanded as 
never before. There is the same tremendous unrest now 
as in the earlier days, only it is transferred from the 
physical to the mental plane; therefore into greater 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


449 


requisition come repose and steadfastness of spirit and 
all womanly gentleness. This added opportunity is no 
cause for self-elation; it is only another Scriptural talent 
to be finally rendered up with usury. 

At the same time woman’s outward territory of use- 
fulness is constantly enlarging. Once, she mitigated the 
horrors of war almost wholly in her own house, whether 
castle or hut, by nursing the wounded warrior. Now, a 
large field of organized work in this direction is open to 
her. Florence Nightingale entered it early, when moral 
courage and resolute will most supplement sympathy and 
skill. Later came increased perfection of organization 
and wonderful executive ability under Clara Barton, also 
serving sufferers by earthquake, fire and flood. 

But I wish to draw attention especially to work in 
which the motherly element in woman finds expression. 
The care of child- widows in India by Madame Ramabai, 
co-operation for the prevention of cruelty to children, all 
kindergartening, primary school instruction, Sunday- 
school instruction, Day Nurseries, assistance in Orphan- 
ages, aiding Working Girls’ Clubs, the service of female 
physicians among homeless girls, Mothers’ Meetings, 
where the educated woman works indirectly for children 
by instructing the untutored mother; the labor in the 
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union to save young 
men from the perils of the saloon, the efforts through 
the White Cross Society to build higher the legal safe- 
guards around young girls — all this is simply the func- 
tion of motherhood enlarged; home, or the love of home, 
should be the inspiring center of it all. 

As by the University Extension System, our higher 
institutions are reaching out friendly aid to those at a 
distance, so a Home Extension System is forming itself 
by a natural and half unconscious process. A strong 
current is setting out from the home into the world, and 


450 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


women are being borne on its tide, while conscientious 
people are asking, Shall this current be checked, or 
encouraged, or wisely directed ? I have only endeavored 
to answer this by studying her relation to philanthropy. 

The subject of the Woman’s Movement, approached 
from the direction I have taken, seems to me to resolve 
itself under two chief heads — Woman as a Mother, 
literal or representative, and Woman in her relation to 
Man. Regarding the former of these two vital relations, 
I would emphasize the point that the maternal attitude 
toward the young, the tempted or the friendless, should 
in no degree supplant or weaken the direct home-life of 
the worker herself; the best vitality should of course be 
given to those nearest and dearest. No power of hers 
will ever be so potent as that exercised upon the plastic 
and sensitive nature of her own child; a nature of which 
she should possess the most sympathetic interpretation. 

But the heart may be larger than the home. The 
key-note of all that is best in modern public effort is that 
love of God which finds new and more extended expres- 
sion in lo^e toward humanity irrespective of creed or 
race or nation. The ear of home must be more finely 
trained to detect the cry of need beyond the threshold, 
the eye of home must be keener to see the way hither, 
the heart of home must be warmer to respond with 
sympathy, the mind of home must be better educated to 
decide wisely, the hand of home must be more skillful to 
fulfill the need. The tendency in this direction on the 
part of both men and women is simply that large and 
inclusive unselfishness which we call public spirit, and of 
which the Divine love is the inspiring force. 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


451 


IX 

THE FEMININE IN THE CHURCH 

BY MISS MARY A. LATHBURY 

It is useless to ignore the fact that there is now in 
progress a movement among women which is growing in 
breadth and momentum with every added year. It has 
been recognized for several decades, chiefly by the char- 
acter of its surface agitations and counter- currents. It 
marks the confluence of the old with the new in the 
stream of the Ages. The real movement has been on a 
much more interior plane of life. Wherever this interior 
movement has been felt, it has, as a rule, been sacredly 
guarded and held in abeyance for a riper time. As Mary 
“kept all things and pondered them in her heart,” so the 
woman of the Church, feeling the tremendous pressure 
of a descending life within her, has waited for Him who 
“openeth and no man shutteth” to set before her an open 
door. 

The question in the air is, “What shall we do, or be, 
or claim in the New- Church Societies? Shall we teach, 
preach, legislate?” These things are propounded for 
women, but not by her. With me the question is a far 
deeper one, and concerns her life as a whole, rather than 
as a half. Her question is, “Are we, the women of the 
New Church, ready for the coming of the Lord? We 
form half the channel for the descent of a New and 
Celestial Church. If by disuse we have become atro- 
phied, or by misuse we have become selfish, and worldly, 
what shall we do to make ready for the Lord?” 

As the Lord looks upon the Church, does he see a 
form of truth alone, or does he see her as a bride adorned 
for her husband ? “The marriage of the Lamb is come;” 
has the wife made herself ready ? Is the love principle 


452 


NEW- CHURCH CONGRESS 


in the Church of equal growth with its intellectual life ? 
If not, she is not ready. It is for the womanhood of the 
Church to pray with a deeper humility, “Thy will be 
done,” if we would see the fulfillment of the prayer, “Thy 
Kingdom come.” 

Perhaps we have lived too much in the external and 
social life of the societies, and too little in the Church in 
the atmosphere of the Word. Or we have not dared to 
assume that the celestial life of the Church could descend 
through us in any least degree, and so we have been con- 
tent with external living, when we should have been look- 
ing to the internal life. Perhaps we are not ready ; but 
heaven is coming, and shall we not at least open our- 
selves, as the flower opens heavenward to receive 
sunlight, shower and dew, to receive whatever heaven 
sends ? 

Perhaps we have lived in the house at Bethany, and 
have been active and loving in our service with Martha; 
or we have been sitting at the feet of the Divine Truth 
with Mary, or following Him to minister to Him and to 
hear His Word, as women have done through all the 
spiritual states of the Church. But now what if our 
state is changing? What if the Lord is calling us by 
name after the resurrection? He said “Mary!” And 
by an interior perception we reply with her “Master!” 
There is no explanation of the new state, for it is one in 
which there is the perception of love. “ He is risen 
from the dead, and behold, he goeth before you into 
Galilee; there ye shall see Him,” is the angel’s message; 
and the Lord Himself, who meets our obedience and 
faith, adds, “Be not afraid; go tell my brethren that 
they go into Galilee, and there shall they see Me.” 

Can it be that He is saying these things to us ? The 
Lord has ascended all the steps of the spiritual degree, 
and conquered in the awful conflict with his enemies and 


WOMAN IN THE CHURCH 


453 


ours. Now He is descending through the celestial degree 
into the natural, and it is the woman who has been wait- 
ing in the early dawn for the stone to be rolled away, 
who first enters into a perception of His risen life, and 
receives His message to His disciples. “ Love enables 
truth to perceive.’’ And the Church will reply, “ The 
Lord is risen indeed!” if it does not add, “and hath 
appeared unto Mary.” 

If this sounds like a plea for woman that she may 
preach the Gospel of a New Life, it is not meant to con- 
vey any such external meaning. It only suggests that 
the woman who follows the Lord through the long battle 
with self and sin; through the humiliation, death and 
burial; may come into a new state. And is not the 
whole Church entering upon that state? In the very 
morning, while it is yet dark, she may be the first to 
hear the voice of Divine Love, and the first to announce 
that the Lord is risen to the other disciples. She tells 
it to Peter and John, to faith and love, and they tell it to 
the rest. The message is just as new cs it ever was. To 
the perception of love it is given to say: “Go tell My 
brethren that the Celestial Church is descending into the 
natural degree of life.” It is for love to teach in love’s 
way. “ Man believes that truth enables him to perceive 
what is good, because it teaches; but this is an appear- 
ance. It is good that enables truth to perceive, for good 
is the soul or life of truth. Man believes that tru J h 
introduces to good when he lives according to the truths 
he has learned, but it is good that flows into truth, and 
introduces it to itself.” (A. C., 3,207.) 

If then we have any perception of the New Life 
what have we to do but to be obedient to the heavenly 
vision, the heavenly will? We need not fear. No mes- 
sage of His will ever send us away by ourselves to form 
a separate Church, and so form interests separate from 


454 


NEW-CHURCH CONGRESS 


those of the brethren. No, He sends ns to them and bids 
us wait with them in the “upper room” until we shall be 
“endued with power from on High,” — the double baptism 
of the spirit and fire. 

It is a time of perplexity for the women of the Church, 
who must grow with it or fail out of it (for she may be 
included in its external form while lacking its life). In 
the clamor outside of her she hears very little that helps 
her. A great English novelist has said: “The unadult- 
erate truth is only to be had by faith in it and by waiting 
for it.” There seems to be little else for us to do beyond 
the faithful performance of known duty, except to be 
found daily in the “upper room” with those who worship 
the Lord and wait for His coming. 

























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